Dreams of a Ten Faced Paladin
by Ten-Faced Paladin
Summary: An anthology of one-shots that I dreamed up int he course of writing fanfiction. I hope you all enjoy them.
1. RanmaGekirangers

I do not Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger or Ranma 1/2. Those belong to their respective creators and not me. Now that this disclaimer is up you can't sue me for trying to steal other people's ideas!

Wild Geki

By Ten-Faced Paladin

Chapter 1: RinJyuKen Gets a Surprise

It seemed to be another ordinary day at the SCRTC building. The people were working hard and orders were made just like usual. However, this was the front of the company. The real core of the company was at the top floor.

You see, the main mission of SCRTC was to combat evil forces of the JinRyuKen with their own GekiJyuKen. The basic style of JyuKen was a fighting style that was based on various beasts and their movements. Over time, this school was split into two different schools. One was a school of justice which was called GekiJyuKen. The other was a school of evil which was called RinJyuKen Akugata. GekiJyuKen believed strongly in the principles of justice and the use of positive emotions in their battles. It believed that in all things there was training. RinJyuKen Akugata was the opposite. It believed in using negative emotions to become stronger and that fighting was the only way to become stronger.

On the top floor of SCRTC was where one of the seven kensei, Shafu, was busy drinking tea along with his friend and student Miki while the three students of GekiJyuKen were busy training themselves for the next assault that the RinJyuKen Akugata may send.

Miki was an attractive woman who appeared to be somewhere in her late twenties to early thirties. She often wore a nice and comfortable business suit. She was the head of research and development of SCRTCH and a student of GekiJyuKen, even if she did not practice as much as she used to anymore. These days, she usually ran her department while assisting Shafu and his students in training, be it from information to obtaining training equipment or transportation.

Master Shafu was an odd character by himself. He was a master of GekiJyuKen Felie-Ken and he had become part cat after using a forbidden technique of GekiJyuKen. His body was somewhat pudgy but that only hid his true skill. Most did not see this skill since he had put himself under a vow never to fight again. He had a cat head and paws which were a golden color. He wore a dark red bodysuit with a purple scarf wrapped around his neck. He was also wearing a pair of boots and a triangle around his belt. Sometimes he would adopt the mannerisms of a cat when he would play with cat toys or enjoy catnip like other cats.

Shafu's three students were busy training themselves. Each of them embodied the three points of the GekiJyuKen triangle. Honest Heart, Fantastic Technique, and Unbreakable Body. Their names were Jan Kandou, Ran Uzuki, and Retsu Fukami. They were also known under another name. They were called Gekirangers.

Ran Uzuki was also known as GekiYellow. She was the only female on the team but that did not mean she was the weakest. With the power of her Honest Heart and her Cheetah-ken, she would put anything and everything into her training. She could master a new technique in due time and truly be great at it. She was a slight neat freak too. Appearance wise she was a woman who looked to be in her early twenties with black hair that was tied back into a short ponytail. She was wearing a yellow Chinese-themed shirt with a black skirt and yellow shoes. On her hands were her GekiChangers which allowed her to change into GekiYellow. At the moment, she was training with the training robot supplied by SCRTC called Robotuff.

Retsu Fukami was known as GekiBlue. He practised the style Jaguar-ken. He focused more on techniques in battle more than anything. He was a skilled fighter and could pick up on many techniques fairly quickly. He was also very skilled in other fields like art. He had a good eye for the artistic and very much enjoyed anything artistic. He seemed in his twenties as well with short black hair.He was wearing a shirt that looked the same as Ran's except that it was blue. He was also wearing long black pants with blue shoes. He likewise kept his GekiChangers on his hands at all times. At the moment he was practicing with his GekiTonfa so to refine his technique with them.

The last student was Jan Kudou, also known as GekiRed. He had been a student of Shafu's the least amount of time. Jan had been mostly raised in the wild where he would learn to fight from pandas and other animals. He had accidentally learned of GekiJyuKen when Miki had crashed her plane in his forest and had to fight against the forces of the RinJyuKen Akugata. Since he had been raised away from most people he didn't know how to describe some things. When he didn't know what to call something, he would usually make up his own words for it that most people didn't understand until he explained it. Jan was in a red shirt similar to what his fellow students and friends wore. He had a pair of black pair of pants with red shoes. Jan looked to be in his early twenties with messy red hair. At the moment, Jan was busy looking through his box of treasures which was mainly things he found in the forest or sparkling things he had never seen before.

"It seems things are peaceful today," Miki commented as she poured herself another cup of tea.

"True," Shafu nodded as he sipped his own tea. "It is rather enjoyable to have peace for a change. Of course, we must remain vigilant."

"Yah! Yah!" Ran shouted at each punch she put into Robotuff's padded hands. "Don't worry Master Shafu! We'll be ready for the RinJyuKen Akugata when they show up again."

"Yes," Retsu agreed from his training. "We will."

"Yatta!" Jan cheered from hsi seat. "We will! We will! Those zowazowa won't know what hit them!"

"Such enthusiasm," Miki smiled. "It's refreshing."

"Yes," Shafu nodded. "With students like these then GekiJyuKen will be prepared for whatever challenges will face them in the future."

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Elsewhere, in a place called Nerima, there was a martial artist who could quite possibly be the best of his generation. His name was Ranma Saotome and his list of accomplishments was rather long. He had done such accomplishments such as defeating the Battle Dogi, the Mark of God, and master techniques such as the Katchu Tenshin Amiguriken and the Hiyru Shouten Ha in a matter of days. He had also defeated such opponents such as Herb of the Musk Dynasty and Saffron of the Phoenix People. All of these were seen as either impossible or a pipe dream to some fool, but he had done it.

Ranma's personal history was not a smooth one. Being trained to be a martial artist since he was five by his father had left his social skills incredibly low. It was predictable since his father didn't see those as important. Also, thanks to his father, Ranma was now trapped in three engagements to three different girls, which he knew of, with no way out. He was engaged to Ukyo Kuonji thanks to his father accepting her dowry, even if he did steal it. He was engaged to Shampoo of the Chinese Amazons thanks to the man pigging out on their tribal prize and thus making Ranma challenge her to a fight and beating her. According to her laws, if a man defeats an Amazon then that Amazon must marry him. Finally, he was engaged to Akane Tendo of the Tendo School of Anything Goes thanks to a pledge between their fathers' wish to unite the schools of Anything Goes.

In the days since the failed wedding and the defeat of Saffron, things had gone back to the norm for Nerima. The fiancées fought tooth and nail to claim Ranma like he was a trophy to be won. Ranma's various rivals would try to destroy him so that their various loves/obsessions would be free to go to them. The fathers had even restarted their own campaign to force their offspring to get married despite a number of protests. In all, Ranma felt that things were back to normal.

At the moment, he was walking to his mother's house to hopefully try and get some peace. At first Ranma was somewhat fearful to go near his mother because before Ranma and Genma left on their training trip, Genma tricked a five-year-old Ranma into signing a seppuku contract that would have him and his father commit seppuku if Ranma was anything but a man among men. Thus Ranma had to pretend to be Akane's cousin Ranko whenever Nodoka Saotome would come to visit.

Did we mention that Ranma could change into a girl thanks to a Jusenkyo curse that his bonehead father gave him during an ill-fated trip to a training ground in China?

Thankfully, Nodoka felt that Ranma was incredibly manly even when he was in female form. Despite gaining the acceptance of his mother, Ranma still couldn't see her that often because when he tried moving back into his mother's house, the fiancées had demolished it when they had gotten into a fight over him. He usually tried to see his mother when he was sure the fiancées wouldn't follow him. He didn't want his mother's new house to be ruined thanks to another stupid catfight.

Ranma rounded another corner before he stopped at a very new house that still gleamed in a new shine. Out front near a garden was a pretty woman who looked about middle aged with red hair tied in a bun and wearing a kimono. She had a sword wrapped in cloth by her side. This was Ranma's mother Nodoka Saotome.

"Hey Mom!" Ranma greeted as he started stepping closer to the Saotome house.

"Hm?" Nodoka blinked before she turned to see her son walking towards her. A bright smile came over her face as she saw her him. "Oh hello Ranma! It's so good to see you!"

Nodoka didn't hesitate in sweeping her son up in a hug. Ranma stiffened slightly, thanks to a reflex saying that if he is hugged by a girl then he was going to get hurt. After a moment, he relaxed enough to return the hug. Nodoka noticed the hesitation but she decided to ask her son about that later. Right now she just wanted to enjoy his company. He came over so little and she so dreadfully missed him. She could have visited him at the Tendo Dojo but she had her own responsibilities most of the time.

"Well, let's go inside for some tea," Nodoka smiled as she picked up her sword and lead her son inside. "How have things been between you and Akane? What about those other nice girls? I'm sorry the wedding turned out like it did. Genma told me you were looking so forward to it."

"I'm sure," Ranma sighed angrily, getting tired of the lies his father would spew to either get out of trouble or get Ranma married to Akane. He and his mother took a seat at the table before speaking again. "Well, things are still the same as they've always been. The Fiancée Brigade is still fighting over me while the rivals want to kill me for 'stealing' their loves. I don't mean to complain, but I'm getting tired of it."

"Why?" Nodoka blinked. "It is very manly to have so many women after you."

"I guess," Ranma shrugged. "But the problem is that I don't want them to chase me. All they do is fight, shout, play tricks, and destroy property. I mean, they did destroy our old house."

"True," Nodoka nodded. "They could learn a little restraint but they are young girls in love after all."

"Love," Ranma snorted. "I'm not even sure what it is personally."

"What?" Nodoka blinked. "But...don't you love Akane?"

"Thought I did," Ranma shrugged while looking at his hands. He knew that talking like this to his mother could end up incredibly badly, but he didn't feel like he had a choice anymore. "But...when I thought about it, I really don't know what love really is. I've never seen what love looks like and I've never really experienced it. Heck, I've never even been given a parent's love before."

Nodoka suddenly felt very hurt. She was also feeling a little confused. How could Ranma not know what love was? He was surrounded by lovely girls who vied for his affection and his father was always there for him. Nodoka also knew that she loved her son very much. He even lived with one of his fiancées. How could he not know what love is?

"Ranma," Nodoka asked. "Could you please explain?"

"Sure," Ranma nodded. "At the Tendo dojo, I guess Kasumi is the best example for love. But that's sibling love. I don't really have any siblings so that doesn't help me. Nabiki is always scamming me out of whatever money I have or get and Mr. Tendo is always trying to pressure me into marrying Akane. He doesn't say much else besides 'you will marry Akane' these days."

"What about your father and Akane?" asked Nodoka. "Surely they have been..."

"Not really," Ranma shrugged. He figured he might as well come clean about his life in general since his mother had asked. He really couldn't refuse her anything. "All Pops has ever done is call me a weak little girl, sell me out behind my back, or make me clean up his messes. He hasn't really said anything nice to me or even said thank-you for helping him. Akane's a little better I guess. She can be nice sometimes, but all we do is fight or ignore each other. I may be dumb but even I can tell that's not love."

"But I thought you and Akane got along so well," Nodoka sighed. "Why would you two keep fighting?"

"Well, we kind of start insulting each other now and then," Ranma shrugged. "The main reasons though are basically the other girls keep trying to claim me by hugging me or something else and she usually sees and accuses me of being a pervert before hitting me. That's more or less the problem. She can't trust me and I don't know the first thing about relationships. It doesn't help that the other fiancées try to tear us apart or just try to steal me away. Some days I can't help but feel like they only see me as a piece of property."

There. He had said it. Ranma Saotome had finally admitted that he didn't know something. He admitted how he felt about his current situation. A landmark moment if there ever was one. All it took was for his mother asking why. A good son could never really refuse their mother anything after all.

"Ranma," Nodoka breathed, never having seen her son like this before. "Ranma, why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Because I thought you would see this as unmanly," Ranma sighed. It was the do or die moment now. If he ticked her off then she would demand him to commit seppuku at any moment. "But since you were the only one I could ask what love was and get a straight answer without trying to push me towards Akane or another girl I had no choice."

"I see," Nodoka nodded. She had to admit that a number of things began to make sense for her. It explained why Ranma never seemed to want to get married and why he never seemed to enjoy receiving affection from those girls. It also seemed to explain why he was so confused when he was asked about his feelings. He just didn't know what the right thing to feel was. He didn't even know how to deal with women in the first place. If he didn't know what love truly was then how was he expected to be happily married and have a family of his own? 

Lots of people knew that Nodoka wanted lots of grandchildren but that was because she had grown up as a single child and it was a terribly lonely life. When she had Ranma, Genma had taken him off on that training trip before she could work on having more children and Genma always seemed to dislike the thought of having more children to care for. It seemed he would rather have other people to take care of him. This led to why Nodoka wanted lots of grandchildren. That was one of the reasons she wanted Ranma to be manly. That way it would be easy for him to attract women and hopefully find that special someone for himself. She wanted Ranma to feel the love of a big family and a loving wife, but if he didn't know what love was then how was he supposed to understand how wonderful being married and having a family could be? When she had given birth to Ranma, Nodoka felt so happy she just wanted to hold onto the little baby and never let go.

"Oh Ranma. I'm so sorry," Nodoka frowned sadly.

"Huh?" Ranma blinked. "Why?"

"Because I have been ignorant of all your problems and haven't even tried to help you in your time of need," Nodoka shuddered with traces of tears in her eyes. "I had no idea it was this bad for you."

"Ah, I survive," Ranma shrugged. The image of his crying mother was sending warning signals to his mind. If he didn't calm her down soon then something was going to happen which involved him getting hurt. Badly. "It's no big deal."

"It is," Nodoka argued. "I suppose a little lesson on love is in order isn't it?'

Ranma felt a little surprised. His mom wasn't about to visit pain on him or demand for his death? To say he was a little surprised was a little bit of an understatement. Still, if he understood what his mom was saying, then she might be able to help him in the fiancée mess by clearing up a few things.

"I'd appreciate it," Ranma snickered. "Kami-sama knows I can use it. It might resolve this mess with the fiancées somehow."

Very well," Nodoka smiled.

Before the Saotome matriarch could explain the concept of love to her son, several screams erupted from down the street. Ranma was up and out the door in a shot. Nodoka could barely see him move before he was gone. She could only hope that her son would be okay if the origin of the scream was bad. Then again, he was being incredibly many by helping others.

-----------------**SCRTC HQ**--------------------

Jan was working through some more of his treasures before he suddenly gasped and stood up. At the same time, Master Shafu's eyes opened wide as he felt the dark essence of a RinJyuKen Akugata attack.

"Zowazowa!" Jan cried loudly. Both Retsu and Ran immediately stopped their training.

"Well what are we waiting for?" asked Retsu. "Let's go!"

"Right!" Ran nodded seriously.

"Ikuzo!" Jan agreed.

--------------------------------------------------

Ranma followed the source of the scream up to one of the main streets in Nerima. When he finally found the source, he found one of the more odd sights of Nerima. The people were running away in terror, but the source was a little confusing. They were running from several figures in brown outfits that had brown masks on. The parts of their faces that were visible were plain and looked like they were pure white with red lining some features. All of them were hopping along with their arms extended outward. Ranma began to wonder just what was so scary about them until he saw them start attacking some nearby people ferociously. Ranma could also tell that as dopey as they looked, they were experienced martial artists. It was in their moves as they jumped and made their attacks. For the first time, Ranma could feel real disgust. The pale guys were using martial arts to harm people and there was no way that he was going to stand for it.

"Hey! Palefaces!" Ranma shouted, catching the attention of the brown thugs. "How about fighting a real opponent?"

The thugs immediately took that as a threat and began hopping towards him. Ranma likewise charged towards the thugs, raring for a fight and teach them what real martial arts were about. Before he actually reached the mob, he leaped over them and used their heads as stepping stones before landing at the back of the mob. He spied a triangle on their backs which pointed downwards and had markings in it. He assumed it was the symbol of their school. As the thugs began to turn around, he launched an upper roundhouse which knocked three of the thugs down. The others didn't even hesitate as they charged to attack Ranma.

As Ranma started to lay into the Rinshii, the students of Shafu came running onto the scene. At first they assumed that the shock troopers of the RinJyuKen Akugata were causing chaos as usual so they were about to join the battle. 

"Zowazowa!" Jan frowned as he got ready to fight.

"Wait!" Ran suddnely shouted out as she spied something different from the last attacks. "There's someone fighting the Rinshii!"

"What!" Restsu and Jan cried at the same time. Both men looked to see the mob of Rinshii sudddenly part as a young man in Chinese clothes rolled across the ground and come back to a fighting stance.

"Wow!" Jan grinned. "So cool!"

"I don't believe it," Retsu blinked. "He's actually fighting the Rinshii and winning!"

"Well?" Ran huffed. "Let's help already!"

"Right!" Jan and Retsu nodded. All three of the GekiJyuKen students charged to assist the martial artist who had gotten an early start.

Ranma had come to a stop as he faced the remaining thugs in brown. They were tough, that was for sure. They could take a hit too. A few of them needed a few hits just to stay down. Luckily, they had jerky movements and had predictable attacks. Despite their training, Ranma's only worry was the numbers that he was against. If he didn't watch how much effort he was putting into this battle then he'd tore himself out and possibly get his butt kicked. If there was one thing that Ranma never did, it was lose a fight. He only had setbacks.

As he was preparing to go at the thugs again, he suddenly found three new people at his sides. Two guys in red and blue were on his left while a girl in yellow was on his right. Their sudden appearance had the pigtailed martial artists somewhat confused.

"Hey," He asked. "Who are you guys?"

"We'll explain later," the guy in blue replied. "Right now we have to deal with these Rinshii.

"Rinshii?" asked Ranma.

"Yes," the girl in yellow nodded. "They're the soldiers of the RinJyuKen Akugata. They're also reanimated bodies of past students of the school."

"They're zombies!" Ranma gaped.

He received nods from the girl in yellow and her friend. Ranma barely suppressed a gulp. This was turning into some kind of horror movie for him. One of the last things he had been expecting was martial artist zombies, but considering his life, it was only a matter of time.

"So, we can beat them right?" asked Ranma. "There's no real trick to taking them down or anything?"

"Ha!" the guy in red laughed. "We can beat them down! We always do!"

"Well, that answers my question," Ranma grinned as he took a battle stance. "Let's just beat these guys and get it over with!"

The three colored martial artists nodded before stepping forward to face the mob. Ranma was slightly confused by the action until all three of them pointed their hands forward while having their thumbs pointed at each other and their index fingers pointed straight up.

"_Taigaire! Power of the Beast!_" the called at the same time. They then brought their arms together before clasping one fist into their opposite hand and clamping down. "_Beast On!_"

The martial artists then put their arms into a windmill motion before rearing back for a punch and then thrusting their hands forward. Ranma could actually feel the ki that they were putting into whatever technique they were using. His respect for the three suddenly shot up if they could pull out this much. 

The three martial artists were suddenly engulfed in bright flashes of light that made Ranma and the Rinshii cover their eyes. When the light had died down, Ranma saw that his three new allies had changed form altogether.

The girl in yellow was now covered in a yellow bodysuit that had a short miniskirt. She was also wearing yellow boots and yellow gloves under her wristbands. She was also wearing a yellow helmet that had a black visor that covered her eyes. The back of her outfit had several black spots along the back and a cat scratch symbol on the front.

The man in blue had a similar outfit, but his was blue and didn't have a skirt on it. The back of his outfit had a large blotch of black with round blue rings which symbolized spots.

Finally, the man in red was now donned in a red version of his friend's outfits except that his was decorated with black stripes on the back.

Ranma wasn't sure just what kind of technique the three had used but he was a little torn at the moment if he wanted to learn it at the moment. He would have to see if the new outfits offered any kind of protection in battle. Well, that and all three reminded him dangerously of those furry demons from hell that chased mice.

"This body swells with infinite energy!" the guy in red called while moving through some kata motions. "Unbreakable Body! GekiRed!"

"With daily purification polishing the heart!" the girl in yellow spoke up doing her own set of motions. "Honest Heart! GekiYellow!"

"Techniques color this grand flower!" the guy in blue spoke with another set of movements. "Fantastic Technique! GekiBlue!"

"The blazing Geki is the proof of justice!" GekiRed called.

"Jyuken Sentai!" all three called before moving into a pose. "GekiRanger!"

Normally Ranma found moves like this useless and hilarious, but this wasn't the case this time. With each movement the three GekiRangers were actually warning the Rinshii about what they were capable of in terms of abilities. GekiYellow said that she put her all into whatever she did. GekiRed had said that he was the strongest physically of the three. GekiBlue had said that he knew the most techniques. Also, Ranma could feel the ki that all three of the martial artists were giving off even after their transformation. He had to give the three credit, they knew what they were doing.

"Hmmm," a new female voice. "You three pests again?"

The Rinshii's parted as two new combatants came walking past them to face Ranma and the GekiRangers. One of them was a woman who was donned in green Chinese clothes with high-heeled boots. She had mostly black hair but two large braids put up in green spirals. Ranma had to admit that she would give his fiancées a big run for their money. The person next to her looked more like the Rinshii, but different. He was donned in red robes that had furry shoulders. His entire face was revealed to be white with red lines highlighting his features. His eyes were also visible, but they were pure black. On his head was a metal cap with depicted a piranha on the front. Ranma could tell that the two were real fighters. Their ki was way higher than the Rinshii.

"Mele!" GekiRed growled as he saw her arrive.

"You three are a bunch of pests!" Mele pouted as she glared at the GekiRangers. "We go out of the way to gather the screams of despair and you still come to bug us!"

Mele's eyes then turned to look at Ranma. She had witnessed how he had taken on the Rinshii by himself and was actually winning. He was definitely impressive for a regular human. Rather attractive when she thought about it. Of course, nowhere near as handsome as her precious Rio-sama. Still, he must have a high skill level if he was able to keep up with the Rinshi.

"You! Boy!" Mele spoke as she pointed at Ranma. "Who are you? How dare you interfere with our operation!"

"Heh," Ranma smirked. "My name is Ranma Saotome of the school of Anything Goes Martial Arts. As for why I was busting you guys up? Simple, marital arts exist to protect the weak. I will not stand by at let you abuse them!"

"Tsk!" Mele sighed irritably. "Another do-gooder. How troublesome!"

"Yatta!" GekiRed cheered before he dashed over to Ranma. He seemed excited as he continued to look Ranma over. "You're just like us! Blazing Geki! Hah ha!"

"Uh..sure," Ranma snickered. He couldn't help but laugh.

"He seems happy," GekiBlue commented.

"Yes he does," GekiYellow agreed. 

Over with Mele and her minions, the one in red began to laugh, "Ha! Bring as many allies as you want! It won't matter who you have with you! We will still destroy you all! Rinshii! Attack!"

The Rinshii all took positions and charged forward in their hopping formations. Ranma and the Gekirangers turned their attention back to the battle. With an unspoken signal, all four of the fighters charged at the Rinshii and thus began their battle.

"Geki Nunchucks!" GekiRed called before he pulled out a set of nunchucks that had cat heads depicted on the ends. Quickly moving into a whirlwind of motion, he dove into thee Rinshii. He spun the nunchucks around and made impact with several Rinshii who were too close. He then completed a roundhouse kick while swinging the nunchucks in the other direction to deal with both sides that were swarming with Rinshii. GekiRed then flipped backwards and knocked one Rinshii into the ground before using it as a springboard and launching a flying kick at several more Rinshii.

"Geki Tonfa!" GekiBlue called before a pair of strait rods with handles appeared on his hands. He then attacked the Rinshii with percision and grace. As the Rinshii would try to hit him, GekiBlue would dodge their attacks while managing to hit them as he was dodging. He completed his movements with a sweep kick which knocked down the last Rninshii before slamming its chest with one of his tonfa.

"Geki Tonfa! Long Baton!" GekiYellow called before summoning a pair of tonfa like GekiBlue's. Then she connected the weapons together to make a staff. She twirled it in her hands and managed to knock a few Rinshii over the head. She flipped over a low attack from another Rinshii before using her staff in a low sweep which knocked over several of her opponents. Getting back up to her feet, she jabbed straight and hit another Rinshii, knocking it over.

"Bring it on!" Ranma grinned as he dove headfirst into a group of Rinshii which had attacked him. He ducked and rolled past them before unleashing an upper kick which sent the target Rinshii into his fellows. Without letting them recover, Ranma charged forward and used a flying kick to keep them off balance. With the Rinshi still struggling to get their act together again, Ranma cupped his hands together and brought them back. A sphere of blue energy began to form as Ranma poured more confidence into the attack. As the Rinshii were finally getting back up, he unleashed his attack, "_Moko Takabisha!_"

The orb of concentrated ki streaked from Ranma's outstretched hands and right towards the Rinshii. They couldn't even move before it hit them with a compressed blast. The force of the blow had sent them all flying like bowling pins. As they came crashing back to the ground, Ranma smirked as he turned back to Mele and the Rinshii in red.

"Is that the best you RinJyuKen Akugata clowns have?" he asked. "If it is then I'm not surprised you guys get beaten all the time!"

"What!" the Rinshii in red growled. "How dare you insult the RinJyuKen Akugata! I'll crush you!"

"I'd like to see a walking stiff manage that!" Ranma laughed. "Your buddies sure couldn't!"

"I am not some lousy Rinshii! I am a Rinrinshi!" the now dubbed Rinrinshii barked as he started walking towards Ranma. "I have way more power then the rest of them!"

"I'll believe that when I see it," Ranma yawned. On the inside though, he was ready to fight as strongly as he could. The Rinrinshii wasn't kidding when he said he was stronger than the Rinshii. The power was coming off in waves when it was compared to the Rinshii. That girl Mele was the only one who outranked him at the moment.

"Then prepare yourself!" the Rinrinshii growled. "The victims of my techniques are always left in pieces!"

The battle then commenced between the pigtailed martial artist and the Rinrinshii. Ranma didn't hold any expectations when he began to fight. What he got was something above average for his usual fights. The Rinrinshii was proving to be incredibly fast. Its punches were dangerously close to Amaguriken speed. Ranma was actually feeling some moderate to high effort being put into this battle.

As the battle continued, Mele was watching in growing interest. The boy had defeated a number of Rinshii and was apparently fighting a Rinrinshii with some amount of effort. If this kept up then the fool might have to transform to keep up the fight.

Ranma dodged several more rapid strikes before he decided that he needed to go on the counter attack. Dodging another attack, he rolled underneath it before coming up behind the Rinrinshii. It was preparing to block an attack from below, but Ranma had managed to see him tensing for the attack. So, Ranma did something unexpected. He leaped straight up and used another roundhouse to hit the Rinrinshii in the side of the head. It moaned in pain but rolled with the blow. Ranma pressed his advantage and started pounding away with several combination blows. The Rinrinshii stuck to his speed and managed to parry a few of them, but it wasn't enough to block several hits that collided with a number of spots that would make a regular person drop in pain. For a Rinrinshii, it only slowed him down. That didn't mean that it didn't feel the pain though.

"Grk!" the Rinrinshii growled as he stumbled back. "You little brat!"

"That the best you have?" Ranma asked, feeling tense for some reason. "I've been dealt insults way more damaging than your attacks."

"Why you little-!" the Rinrinshii raged. "That's it! I'm done toying with you! _Jujin Jashin Hen!_"

Ranma became even more tense as he felt the Shishirin powering up it's energy. Either it was ki or some other kind of energy; it was still spelling bad news. Ranma could only watch in a kind of morbid fascination as the Shishirin seemed to mutate and change in front of him. Its body shifted to a bulkier form which was scaly and had a navy blue hue. Fins sprouted from its shoulders and legs. Its feet were webbed and its hands looked like the heads of piranha. The face of a piranha could also be found on its chest. Its face was a weird fusion between piranha and human. It had a large mouth filled with jagged teeth and its eyes were glassy. Three sets of fins stretched along the top of its head. In all, Ranma was looking at a full-blown monster.

"What the heck are you?" Ranma managed to get out while gaping at his opponent.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the monster snickered. "I am of the RinJyuKen Akugata school. I am a practitioner of Piranha-ken. You can call me Pirhanos."

"So you went from paleface to fishface," Ranma frowned. "Big deal."

"WHAT!" Pirhanos growled. "THAT'S IT! NO ONE CALS ME FISHFACE AND SURVIVES!"

Off at the side, Mele was still watching the battle. The human was beginning to worry her. He had managed to force Pirhanos to change and had even found one of his personal sorespots. On the other hand, the boy had discovered it by accident and Pirhanos' anger was a big ticket for him to help win a battle. She personally wanted to see if the upstart little boy could take the heat.

Meanwhile, the GekiRangers were still being swamped by Rinshii. It seemed that more of them had decided to join fighting them after Ranma had knocked them away. As GekiYellow knocked away several particularly stubborn ones, she spied Ranma facing down against Pirhanos. She actually stiffened for a second as she saw them.

"Oh no!" she gasped before avoiding another assault by Rinshii. She then turned to her comrades who were trapped in their own battles with Rinshii. "Jan! Retsu!"

"Can't talk!" GekiBlue replied while beating away several Rinshii.

"Too many zowazowa!" GekiRed cried in the midst of several Rinshii.

GekiYellow attempted to get herself through the number of Rinshii but was quickly swamped by them. They just didn't want to give up!

"Ah ah ah!" Mele giggled while waving her finger in a chiding motion. "Let the little upstart learn on his own not to mess with the RinJyuKen Akugata."

Meanwhile with Ranma and Pirhanos, things were just starting off. Pirhanos decided to stop playing with the boy and just end his life immediately. He even knew what technique to use. It was one which was very much like the animals in which his fighting style is based after.

"_Piranha-ken! Ringi! Esa Kyoran!_" Pirhanos called before unleashing his attack.

Ranma immediately saw the technique coming at him with the force of a bullet. Pirhanos' pirhana hands came surging at him with their jaws open and looking to tear him apart. As Ranma witnessed the attack coming, he realized that this was just a variation of the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken. Only this one was meant to cause some serious pain since the hands were actually little meat-eater hands. Knowing that he would be chewed to bits if he didn't do anything, Ranma retaliated, "_Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!_"

Ranma unleashed his own flurry of blows that went at a blurring speed thought unmatchable by regular people. He had to aim his punches perfectly or else Pirhanos' hands were going to take chunks out of him. Each punch collided with their target and a stalemate was reached. After a few moments of rapid-fire punches, both Ranma and Pirhanos ended their assaults and stepped back from each other. Pirhanos was gaping at his hands. All the teeth were broken and swollen right between the eyes. Ranma didn't get away unscathed since his hands had several cuts near the knuckles. Apparently, the teeth were sharp at all parts.

"Just what the heck are you?" asked Pirhanos incredulously. "There is just no way that a mere human can do that!"

"Heh!" Ranma grinned, despite the pain in his hands. "You've obviously never been to the Nerima district."

"Grrrr!" Pirhanos growled. "Well, you've obviously never fought someone from the RinJyuKen Akugata before!"

Pirhanos concentrated his energies into his hands and soon the broken teeth started falling out of the two mouths as new ones were already growing in. Ranma grimaced as he watched the process. Now Prihanos could use his Esa Kyoran attack again. Ranma on the other hand would not be able to use another amaguriken with his hands in the condition they were. Luckily though, he had other attacks that he didn't need punches for.

"So you grew your teeth back," Ranma shrugged as if he didn't have painful cuts on his hands. "Big deal."

"Grrr!" Pirhanos growled. "Will you just shut up!"

Ranma just smirked as he planned out his next move. To pull it off perfectly he would have to get his fishy opponent really ticked off. Judging by the way he reacted when called fishface, it would be pretty easy. Ranma immediately slipped himself into the Soul of Ice. He would need it to pull off his next attack.

GekiRed was busy fighting several Rinshii when he felt it. The air began to get colder and he really didn't like it.

"Burabura!" he cried as he rubbed his arms to get warmer.

"Huh?" GekiBlue asked.

"What's burabura?" asked GekiYellow.

"Burabura!" GekiRed insisted. He then tried to explain. "The air isn't warm anymore! White stuff falls from the air! Burabura!"  


"Burabura," GekiBlue pndered. "You mean cold? Burabura means cold?"

"Yeah!" GekiRed cried. "It's cold! Lots of cold air!"

"But it's the middle of summer!" insisted GekiYellow. "Where's the cold air coming from?"

"There!" GekiRed pointed. Everyone turned to the battle beteen Ranma and Pirhanos. Both GekiYellow and GekiBlue were now slightly confused by that. 

"You mean the Jujin?" asked GekiBlue.

"Nuh-uh!" GekiRed replied. "Pigtailed guy!"

"Huh!" GekiBlue and GekiYellow gaped at the same time.

The battle continued on as Ranma began to lead on Pirhanos. He was deep into the Soul of Ice while he kept his attention focused on his fishy opponent.

"Well come on fishface!" Ranma called. "Show me what RinJyuKen Akugata is all about!"

"Shut up!" Pirhanos roared as he charged after Ranma, wanting to tear him apart.

Mele still continued to watch in deeper curiosity. She wanted to know just how the boy was making his aura so cold. She had also spied the movements between the two. The boy was moving in a complete spiral. He was a strange one, no doubt about that. The boy was proving to be a serious contender against them and he could prove to be a major threat if he used his full potential. She rather doubted he could though. He was just a kid. What could he do?

Ranma had to hold in a smirk as he continued to lead Pirhanos in the spiral. The fishfaced moron was falling for it every step of the way. Ranma just kept calling him names and the guy was going to a rage just trying to follow him. The Jujin was giving off a large amount of hot ki and all Ranma had to do was keep in his own Soul of Ice to keep his own ki cold. Pirhanos kept trying to take chunks out of Ranma's hide every step of the way. Ranma finally allowed himself to smirk as he completed the spiral and clenched his fist.

"_Hiryu Shouten Ha!_" Ranma called as he unleashed the attack.

The entire battlefield was covered in gale-force winds as a large tornadow appeared where Ranma was standing. It swept in Pirhanos and quite of the few Rinshii. The Gekirangers were thankfully far enough away to only have to brace themselves against the attack. Mele had her natural ability to stick to surfaces thanks to her Chameleon-ken training.

"Tornatorna!" GekiRed shouted in awe. "Pigtail guy is so sugoi!"

"How is he doing this!" asked GekiYellow, slightly panicked.

"I don't know!" GekiBlue shouted back.

---------------------------------------------

In SCRTC headquarters, Miki and Shafu were watching the battle with growing interest. They hadn't even heard of anyone normal who fought Rinshii and Jujin. This boy was doing it and winning! Now, he seemed to have summoned a tornado to deal with his opponents.

"Oh my!" Miki gasped, unknowingly matching a certain Tendo sister.

"Hmmm," Shafu pondered as he rubbed his chin. "A Hiryu Shoten Ha. I didn't think I would see it anywhere outside of China. This boy must be very good if he can master it to such a level."

---------------------------------------------

The wind continued on as it fed off Pirhanos' hot ki. It lasted longer than Ranma had anticipated, but it ended soon enough. The winds slowly died down before all the Rinshii came crashing down to the ground in heaps before exploding into blast of purple smog. Pirhanos wasn't so lucky on the other hand. His hot ki had powered the Hiryu Shoten Ha to such an extent that it managed to send him flying into the distance. The only people who were left were Ranma, the Gekirangers, and Mele. The only sounds being heard were Ranma's heavy breathing.

"Tsk!" Mele frowned. "How could that fool have lost?" She then turned away from the people and vanished, blending into her surroundings.

"Sugoi!" GekiRed cried as he raced over to Ranma. His two compatriots followed. All three of them deactivated their transformations before they reached him.

"That was amazing!" Ran smiled. "You beat them all!"

"Such a powerful technique," Retsu agreed. He was shocked to see someone so young using a technique as powerful as what he had seen.

"You sent them all flying away!" Jan grinned. "Sugoi!"

"Heh," Ranma grinned sheepishly. He wasn't used to getting positive comments so he couldn't help but feel some pride in his actions. He was also a little unsure about what he was going to say. Usually people were nowhere near him or out cold to compliment him. Everyone else would just harp on him or get angry at him. "It was nothing."

"I think otherwise," a new voice spoke.

Jan looked to his Gekichanger, as the voice came out of it. Miki had constructed them to act as communicators as well as means of transforming. "A Hiryu Shouten Ha is not just some special technique."

"Master Shafu," Retsu murmured.

"I would like to meet this young man," the voice known as Shafu spoke. "How about it?"

Ranma considered the offer. He knew next to nothing about these people, but their moves were pretty good. They handled those Rinshii pretty well. Maybe he might be able to get some training in if he went to meet their master. After all, one of the main lessons of Anything Goes was adapting to all styles you came across. Even if it wasn't, Ranma was ever the martial artist nut and the chance to learn something new made him as giddy as a kid in a candy store.

"Sure," Ranma nodded. Hiding his enthusiasm almost hurt. "What could it hurt?"

"Great," Ran smiled. "Follow us."

Ranma took another breath before he started following his fellow martial artists. He knew that he might be taking a risk at going someplace with people he had never met before in his life. He was taking an even bigger risk with one of them being a woman. Despite the girl in yellow being at least a couple years older than him, the fiancées were still going to be up in arms about him spending time with a woman that was not them. He shuddered to think of what they were going to do if they came for him.

"So, your name is Ranma?" asked the guy in blue.

"Yeah," Ranma nodded. He then examined his three companions. "Just who are you guys anyway?"

"Jan Kudou!" the guy in red smiled brightly.

"My name is Ran Uzuki," the girl in yellow introduced politely. "I hope we can be friends."

"Retsu Fukami," the guy in blue likewise introduced. "Please just call me Retsu."

"Okay," Ranma nodded. "I gotta be honest with you; it's nice to finally meet someone who isn't out for my head or my hand. It's a relief."

"Huh?" Jan blinked. "Head? Hand? Why would people be after that?"

"It's a long story," Ranma sighed. "Maybe if we're friends long enough I'll let you know."

Ran and Retsu both nodded before continuing on their way. Ranma seemed like an interesting character that had an even more interesting history. Retsu idly wondered where he had learned such techniques while Ran wondered what he had to do to learn them. Jan was still bouncing around Ranma, asking him questions and stuff. Ranma didn't seem to mind, but he wasn't very forthcoming about any kind of personal information.

---------------------------------------

The forests were silent as the day progressed. Everything was peaceful as the animals went about their way to getting food and shelter. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it seemed that it was going to be yet another day of peace.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" a loud voice cried before what seemed to be a meteor crashed into the dirt, kicking up a huge cloud of dust and dead leaves.

When the cloud vanished, the image of a dirty Rinrinshii could be seen trying to struggle to his feet. 

"Gaah!" it growled as it managed to stand up. "Curse that brat! I won't let this humiliation stand! I'll kill him!"

"Oh?" a new voice purred.

Before Pirhanos could turn around, a long silver tongue wrapped itself around his neck tightly. He struggled to breathe before he was yanked backwards by the owner of that tongue. His body was slammed against a tree before it unwrapped itself from him and came back into the mouth of its owner. Pirhanos turned to see none other than Mele glaring at him and she looked less that pleased.

"Not only do you fail in gathering a substantial amount of ringi," Mele growled as she stepped closer to Pirhanos. She then grabbed his throat and pressed him against the tree. "You also get yourself defeated by a human boy! Give me one good reason not to end your existence right now!"

"Erk," Pirhanos gasped, struggling to breathe. "I...I can still gather more! I'll bet that boy has some really powerful screams of despair too! If I can defeat him then I can add his screams to what we have! Imagine the boost!"

This caused Mele to pause. It was true that the boy from before was powerful. If his normal abilities were that strong, then his screams of despair would be just as powerful. If they could get their hands on whatever ringi he could give off, then they would get a significant boost to the ringi that they had already collected.

"Okay," Mele nidded as she released the Rinrinshii. "We will see if you are correct. Be warned though, should you fail or his ringi isn't as powerful as you thought, you will pay the price for failure."

"I will not fail!" Pirhanos nodded. "That brat won't know what hit him!" 

----------------------------------------------

"Achoo!" Ranma sneezed loudly.

"Bless you Ranma," Ran spoke almost automatically.

"Thanks," Ranma replied before he looked up at the SCRTC building where the three martial artists spent their days. "Wow. You guys actually train here?"

"Yes," Retsu nodded. "Our master trains us here and a lot of our equipment is made by this company."

"Wait until you meet Neko!" Jan smiled. "He's so cool!"

"N-n-neko?" Ranma quivered.

"Our sensei," Ran clarified. "Jan likes to call him that.

"Oh," Ranma sighed in relief. Ranma may have been unclear on a lot of concepts, but even he knew that a cat couldn't train anyone in martial arts.

Oh how wrong he was.

The four martial artists passed through the main lobby with just a nod to the receptionist. No one seemed to pass them a second glance as they made their way to the elevator. Ranma was taking in all the sights around him since he hadn't been in nice modern buildings before. Sure, he was in the mansions and palaces like Picolet and Saffron, but the modern buildings had been a new experience for him.

"So where are we going?" asked Ranma as he, Ran, Retsu, and Jan boarded the elevator.

"Our teacher does his lessons privately on the top floor," Ran explained. "There's plenty of space up there for anything we need concerning our teachings."

"Wow," Ranma blinked. "You guys have an entire floor to yourselves? I usually have to go with cramped dojos or parking lots."

"Do you train a lot?" asked Retsu. "You moved with someone who has had plenty of training."

"Darn right I have training," Ranma snickered. "I've been training as long as I can remember. Most of the training I do these days is sparring or battles."

"Wow!" Jan laughed. "You fight a lot?"

"Too much," Ranma sighed. "It's basically all I really do back home. I can't get any peace."

Ran and Retsu looked to each other with some concern. For someone like Ranma to be forced to fight all the time could not have been good. If someone was trapped in battle constantly, then eventually they might become nothing but fighting machines that can do nothing but fight. 


	2. Kamen Rider Feudal Blade

I do not own Inuyasha or Kamen Rider Blade. Those belong to their respective owners and not me. Please don't try to contest me on this because I will emerge victorious from that argument. Anyway, enjoy the fic.

Kamen Rider Feudal Blade

By Ten-Faced Paladin

Category Ace: Spade

**China**

The wilderness of the continent was in an uproar. Many demons were rising against each other as they fought to determine the new ruler of the demons on the continent. When news came of the death of their former lord Menoumaru, many demons saw it as the perfect chance to take control of the power void. Unfortunately, many more demons had the same idea. Don't forget the foreign demons nearby who had their eye on China. The humans were never the wiser since this was a purely demon matter. It didn't stop them from rejoicing hen they found old battlefields littered with demon corpses. It was on one of these battlefields that one demon stood. It would be his actions that will threaten the world in the time to come.

This demon was mid-level in terms of power, but he was fiercely loyal to the former lord, Menoumaru. There had been a minor struggle for power when his lord's father, Hyoga, was sealed away by that blasted Inutaisho. The former lord of the western lands in Japan had sealed away Hyoga's power with only one of his fangs. It had taken Menoumaru a long time to first earn his title as lord, and then find where Inutaisho had sealed his father's power. Lord Menoumaru had traveled to the east to collect his father's power and conquer the land he so deserved. Many minions of Menoumaru's court thought that he had done it when they felt his energy rise to full power, but as soon as they felt him come to full power, it was snuffed out almost immediately afterwards. It was made quite clear that their master was dead. The wars had soon started up afterwards.

"This shouldn't be happening!" the minor demon growled. "How could Lord Menoumaru have been defeated by a group of humans and one hanyou! It shouldn't be possible!"

Granted, the hanyou was the son of Inutaisho, the demon who conquered Hyoga. The humans were also unique in their own ways. One was a demon slayer, another was a powerful monk who held a wind tunnel, and the last one was a miko of unheard of strength. That still didn't cover the fact that they were one filthy hanyou and three worthless humans.

"They will be punished," the demon growled angrily. "And I know just how to do it!"

With that, the demon began his journey. He travelled over many days and nights. He only stopped to eat or sleep. He was a demon on a mission and he was going to complete it. His travels eventually brought him to a snowy mountain in a region called Tibet in the present. The demon had to be careful where he stepped or else he was going to be caught by the tribes of humans that lived in the area.

The demon had heard from other demons who had come from the area that there was a hidden power in the mountains which could end the world if it was used properly. Many demons had tried for it, but the tribes of humans in the area were very powerful demon hunters. On par or even better than the likes in the eastern country that claimed the life of Menoumaru and his servants which accompanied him.

The demon had trekked through a large number of caverns and had found nothing. After several days of finding the same, the demon was about ready to give up and find another way to get revenge. As night fell, it huddled into one of the caverns to try and find warmth, but as it took one last glance in the night, it spotted a strange light. Deciding to take a closer look, the demon went through the rocky grounds until it found where the light was coming from. It was another cavern and there were a few humans outside of it. Each of them were armed to the teeth with weapons and looked ready for business. The demon knew that it would have to be sneaky or else it would get killed before it got within ten feet of the cavern.

And so, the demon waited. It studied the humans as it plotted on ways to get in. It watched when they would switch guard and as they fought off some other minor demons that tried to enter the cavern. It was watching as when the demons were slaughtered, the guards would fight for all their worth and focus solely on their opponents. That was when the demon got its plan.

It was easy enough, but the timing would have to be perfect. When another group of demons had come for the cavern, the hunters were up and ready for them. When the battle had commenced, the demon snuck past it and into the cavern. The sounds of battle echoed through the cavern as the demon continued on its way. At first it seemed that there was no way that it was going to end, but it had changed soon enough when the demon finally found the back of the cavern.

There were many carvings on the walls. Each of them was nothing that the demon was interested in. It was the shrine at the back that caught the demon's attention. It walked over to the stone structure eagerly before opening the shrine. It was expecting some kind of weapon or a demon that it could use to complete its revenge. Instead, it found a single stack of cards. Slightly confused, the demon reached for them and picked up the first card on the top. It glanced at the red back before turning it over to reveal a picture of a rhino beetle with a strange symbol on its shell. On the side of the card was the word 'change' and there was nothing else. Despite the disappointment the demon felt in the item he had secured, it could feel the power that the cards were radiating. Acting quickly, the demon grabbed al the cards and began running for the exit of the cavern. It didn't dare drop any of the cards since they were his key to vengeance.

The battle was still in full swing as the demon exited the cavern. It considered itself lucky that it was able to get out undetected. Now all it had to do was learn to harness these cards so that he could destroy the ones who dared to kill his master.

**Japan, 5 weeks later...**

The demon had to travel carefully to get where he was at the moment. He had been attacked by other demons that had felt the power of the cards and wanted them for themselves. It couldn't let them have it though. These cards were going to help him avenge his master. All he had to do now was find out how to use them.

The demon was currently staring at the cards which were lay out in front of him. He was in the middle of a clearing in a deep forest. Each card had a different picture on it and a different word written on the side. The demon assumed that each card would give the user a different ability, but the highest cards had the same word on them. The two cards marked 'Joker' were odd as well. He couldn't tell what they did. Right now, he had no idea what to do with the cards.

"Aw, what the hell," the demon grunted before picking up the cards into a single pile before pumping his demonic energy into each of the cards. The cards began to glow with a pulse, but nothing else seemed to happen. The demon then started pumping more energy into the cards. The cards began to tremble as the power cut through them. The demon began to get impatient as it pumped even more energy into the cards.

BOOM!

The demon's vision was filled with white as energy pulsed from the cards and seemed to vanish. The demon struggled to get its bearings again. It could hear hissing and growling of all sorts while it struggled to see again. When the glare faded, its eyes widened to see a small army of strange demons that seemed confused at where they were standing.

"My own army!" the demon laughed, catching the monsters' attention. The demon looked at all them seriously. "Hear me! I was the one to release you all! As such, I expect you all to follow my orders to the letter! Is that understood?"

One monster which had a gray carapace and looked slightly like a rhino beetle stepped forward while griping its grey sword which seemed styled after its horn. It glared at the demon before it seemed to smirk.

"_Not bloody likely!_" the monster laughed as it raised its sword high.

The demon was stunned at the defiance and was unable to get out of the way before the monster sliced it half in a flurry of blood and gore. Satisfied, the monster began to walk away from the clearing. The other monsters likewise began heading their own ways. They were curious about their surroundings and sought to learn about it. That was one fact that all of them could agree on.

The Undead were free once more.

**1 week later...**

"I don't see why you have to go back, Kagome," the half demon Inuyasha growled as he and his friends traveled along a dirt path.

"Inuyasha, I told you," the girl from the future, Kagome, sighed. "I have a lot of tests coming up and I need to get back to take them."

"Yeah, Inuyasha," the fox demon child Shippo nodded. "You don't have to get upset over it." 

"We should be looking for jewel shards! Not taking tests!" Inuyasha grumbled.

"There is much to be said for taking a rest, Inuyasha," the monk, Miroku, commented.

"It wouldn't kill you to let Kagome go either," the demon slayer Sango, added.

Inuyasha just grumbled as the group continued walking. They were heading back towards the village where the Bone Eaters Well was situated. Kagome was getting behind on her studies and the tests that she was going to take might make or break her chances of actually getting into a good school.

Things had been quiet for the travelers in their hunt for the sacred jewel shards. Their enemy Naraku and his minions had been silent for a long time and there were fewer and fewer jewel shard for them to find. There was no shortage of demons, but none of them was using jewel shards. Their hunt was turning up nothing so far. This only served to make Inuyasha grumpy.

"Do you think that there are anymore jewel shards left to find?" Shippo asked curiously.

"Maybe," Kagome shrugged. "But that still doesn't change the fact that Naraku has a large majority of them."

"It also means that he is getting a large power boost from them," Miroku added grimly.

Everyone was silent at that thought. It wasn't one that the group particularly liked. Naraku was pretty powerful as it was. With that near-complete jewel that he had with him, he was really getting hard to kill. Inuyasha and the group had tried to do it for some time now. None of those attempts were truly successful, but they had come close a few times. Naraku also had a habit of playing with people's minds and feelings for amusement. He also did it to string them along and keep them under his thumb.

Inuyasha continued to grumble until he caught a whiff of a scent. It was something that he didn't like and it was one that he hadn't smelt before. What was worse was that it was coming from up ahead.

"Inuyasha?" asked Kagome, concerned for the hanyou. "What's wrong?"

"I smell something," Inuyasha spoke before he started running for the source of the scent.

"Hey, Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted while she and her other friends gave chase. "Is it a demon?"

"I don't know!" Inuyasha snapped without turning back.

"What?" Sango cried. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"Just what I said!" Inuyasha snapped as he continued running.

The group continued to run as Inuyasha followed the strange scent. As they came through a final bit of foliage, the group was stunned when they saw the village that they often called home. Several of the buildings were destroyed and in flames. A lot of them looked like they had been cut in half by a sword. So did several of the villagers. The cuts were clean and very neat. Whoever had done it was a true swordsman.

"Who could've done this?" gasped Kagome.

"I would bet Naraku had a hand in this," Inuyasha growled.

"I'd agree with you," Miroku nodded.

Further conversation was cut off when electric bolts could be seen coming from another part of the village. No more words needed to be said as the group dashed towards the source of the disturbance. They got through several severed corpses and destroyed homes. Some dust was kicked up from the last burst of energy and sight was clouded for a bit. When they had gotten through the dust, they came upon a new sight that they were partially expecting.

Two large...they wanted to say demons, but there was something off about them. One was going about wildly, slashing wildly at anything that seemed remotely intact. It was rather pale with gray armor/skin. It was hard to tell which sections were armor and which were skin. It looked rather lizard-like and it was holding a large sword. On its waist was an ornate belt. In all, the beast seemed rather feral and had no kind of intelligent thought of its own.

The other beast was much more intimidating. Its body was covered in gray carapace that showed very little openings for seams. A large pointed horn adorned its head and its face was very intimidating. Around its waist was a belt similar to the one the lizard creature was wearing. In its right hand was a sharp blade which looked like it could outdo the lizard beast's sword. In its left hand however, was a familiar face.

"Kaede!" Kagome cried in shock

The insect beast turned its head to look at the group while its lizard companion also focused its attention. It released a hiss as it gave them a fierce glare. Kaede likewise turned her attention towards the group which had just arrived.

"Run, you fools!" she managed to gasp.

"_Humans,_" the insect beast growled before it dropped Kaede to the dirt. "_I...hate...humans!_"

"Heh," Inuyasha smirked as he kneeled slightly to take a battle position. His hand was resting on the hilt of his sword, Tetsusaiga. "If you think that I'm just another human, then you're gonna die!"

Inuyasha dashed forward and drew his sword. The blade grew to an incredible size as he bore down on his opponent. The Insect creature seemed to take it as a challenge as it raised its own sword in apparent anticipation of the fight. It had even gotten itself in its own battle stance. The two blades collided with one another in a haze of sparks which rained down to the ground. Both blades were crackling with their own energy. Tetsusaiga was bright yellow while the creature's was a sickly green.

"So," Inuyasha grunted under the strain. "What did Naraku name you?"

"_Naraku?_" the insect beast asked. "_Who is Naraku?_"

"Don't play dumb with me!" Inuyasha growled as he leapt back from the creature. "You have to be a spawn of Naraku! I've never seen a demon like you before!"

"_Humph,_" the creature grimaced. "_I am not the creation of some pathetic mortal! I am beyond that! I am Undead!_"

"Undead, huh?" Inuyasha snorted. "Then I guess I'll have to chop you into extra pieces to make sure you stay dead!"

Inuyasha then gave another yell as he charged for an attack. The grey creature likewise gave its own yell before charging at Inuyasha with equal vigor.

SHING!

Miroku leapt back, just barely avoiding a blow from the lizard creature. It was quick on its feet and obviously knew how to use the sword it was holding. He had never seen a creature like it before, but that didn't mean that he wasn't willing to try and defeat it.

"Hiraikotsu!" Sango yelled as she hurled her giant boomerang towards the creature, aiming to cut it in half.

The lizard creature hissed angrily as it saw the weapon coming. It raised its own blade quickly to shield itself from the blow. The Hiraikotsu collided heavily against the weapon and made a ringing sound echo from the two weapons. The lizard creature stumbled backwards from the sheer force, but it managed to push back and send the giant boomerang right back at Sango. It didn't bother the demon slayer that much. Now was the golden opportunity that they were looking for.

"Kagome! Now!" she shouted to her friend.

The lizard creature seemed confused before it heard a notching sound from behind. It turned around to see what the sound was and was faced by the girls from the future. She had an arrow notched in her bow and a serious look on her face. Shippo was hiding behind her legs looking somewhat determined to see this fight through. Before the lizard creature could react properly, Kagome let the arrow fly with all the miko energy that she could muster. The arrow flew true at her target before embedding itself in the creature's shoulder. It gave off a high-pitched shriek as it tugged at the arrow. Despite having damaged it, the friends were expecting more of a reaction.

"Hey, Kagome," Shippo blinked. "Shouldn't have it been destroyed?"

"I don't know, Shippo," Kagome replied confusedly. "I put enough spiritual energy into that arrow to destroy almost any demon."

Kaede, who was still struggling to stand, looked over to her friends, "This why I told ye to run! Miko powers do not affect these creatures! They cannot be purified!"

"What!" Miroku cried. "Impossible!"

"The proof is in front of us, Miroku," Sango frowned as she turned her attention back to the lizard creature. It had managed to yank the arrow out of its shoulder. A trail of bright green blood could be seen running down the creature's chest. It could also be seen covering the arrowhead.

"RAHGH!" Inuyasha bellowed ashe and the insect creature continued to slash at each other.

The battle was more or less at the standstill. Inuyasha's haori had some cuts in the fabric but his skin hadn't been touched. The insect creature had taken some hits, but only sparks had come from those blows. Its armor was proving to be incredibly tough.

"_I grow weary of this!_" the creature growled as it gave itself some space. It then raised its blade as more green energy began to collect around of it.

"Heh, idiot," Inuyasha smirked as he began to let wisps of air collect around the Tetsusaiga. He was planning to let the creature unleash its attack before reflecting it right back at it with the Backlash Wave. Inuyasha began to feel that he had won this battle.

The creature let the energy collect in its blade before it gave a single yell and sent the energy flying at Inuyasha in a wave of emerald light. Inuyasha just continued to smirk as the wind whipped around the Tetsusaiga even faster as he raised it above his head.

"_Backlash Wave!_" Inuyasha yelled as he brought the Tetsusaiga down in what he thought would be his finishing blow. 

What happened next was anything but a finishing blow. When the Tetsusaiga made impact against the energy, there was a loud crackling noise before the attack was cut in half and the two pieceshit the dirt, creating a dust cloud. Inuyasha himself wasn't unharmed as he felt the residual energy running through his body like a million volts. It was not a pleasant sensation.

"What the hell!" Inuyahsa grunted as he struggled to move. "Why didn't it work?"

Inuyasha knew of a few instances where the Backlash Wave wouldn't work. One of them was if the target demon was just too weak. Inuyasha knew that this wasn't the case with this creature. It had a lot of power backingit up. The only other reason he could think of was that there was no demonic aura for the backlash wave to feed off of. That was what didn't make sense to Inuyasha. There was no way that his opponent could be anything but a demon, right?

"_Not bad,_" the creature acknowledged as it raised its sword. "_If one such as you had competed in the Battle Game, then things might have turned out differently._"

Inuyasha just growled as he attempted to get into another battle stance. Perhaps this battle wasn't going to be as easy as he thought it was going to be.

-----------------------------------------------------------

The stranger was riding hard and fast to get to a nearby village. He had been hot on the trail of the demon which had stolen the sealed monstrosities which he had been partially entrusted in guarding. When the village had found out that they had been stolen, he had been contacted to try and find out where the thief was hiding. They had followed the obvious demonic thief to the eastern ocean, which meant that the cards were now in his home country. That had been weeks ago. It was only days ago that he had picked up the trail and found the corpse of the little demon which had stolen the cards. When he saw the area and the condition of the body, he feared that either an even more sinister demon had gotten a hold of them, or worse, it had unsealed them. 

This was why he had been riding to the nearest village he could find. He could ask if any unusual demons had been appearing, or failing that, seeing the remains to see if any of the creatures he had been guarding were the cause or not.

He rode his steed through several trees and past a strange well and came out to see a village. At first he was looking for people, but his hopes plummeted as he saw a battle commencing below him. His pulse raced when he saw that two of the combatants were among the creatures which he and his tribe were supposed to be guarding. He had to admit that the humans fighting them were doing moderately well, but they were treating them as demons. He knew that those creatures were not demons and could not be killed no matter what one did to them.

Knowing that it was only a matter of time before these fighters got themselves killed. The stranger started riding down the hillside towards the battle. No more people would die if he had anything to say about it.

-------------------------------------------------------

Inuyasha knew that this battle wasn't looking good for him. He was still partially stunned from the last attack that the insect monster had thrown at him and his muscles were being uncooperative. The insect creature was taking its sweet time in fighting now that Inuyasha was crippled. I figured that it had won and that there was no reason to rush. All it really had to do was savor the victory and the moments leading up to it.

"_This has been somewhat enjoyable,_" the insect creature snickered as it gazed at Inuyasha. "_Regrettably, I do have a Battle Game to win so I must end this. Farewell!_"

Inuyasha watched as the creature prepared another blast of energy in its sword. It was easily three times more powerful than the last one. With his muscles like they were at the moment, Inuyasha knew that he wouldn't be able to dodge it either. He did not like his chances of survival. The creature prepared to unleash its attack when a sudden intervention came into play.

"CATEGORY ACE!" a new voice shouted.

Inuyasha and the creature instantly turned to face wherever the voice had come from. Both saw a man on horseback coming closer at a rapid pace. The creature turned to face the man but was unable to make any kind off attack. The manon horseback clipped the creature as he passed it and sent it sprawling to the dirt. The rider came to a stop and dismounted to face the creature.

He looked Japanese, but his clothes were obviously Chinese. He was wearing a blue tunic and matching pants. He had black slippers on and a silver sash tied around his waist. When Inuyasha got a better look at him, he seemed pretty close to either Miroku or Sango's age. He had reddish-brown hair and despite the seriousness in his face, he still had a kind of kindness in his eyes.

The creature seemed to get angry at the mere sight of the new arrival. It began to growl and glare at the man. A large amount of hate came rolling off of it as it and the man began to glare at each other. Inuysasha seemed to be forgotten at the side as he witnessed the battle.

"_Kamen Rider!_" the insect creature spat angrily.

"So you remember me," the man smirked. "I'm flattered."

"_You'll be my first victory before the new Battle Game will commence!_" the creature growled.

Inuyasha continued to growl as he continued to get more feeling back in his body. He already had the feeling in his arms back and that was all he needed at the moment. He didn't care who the new guy was, but he really wanted to take the monster down. He steadied himself as he raised the Tetsusaiga above his head while wisps of wind whipped over the blade again. The stranger witnessed the movement and was obviously confused about it. He wasn't about to give the creature a warning though.

"_Wind Scar!_" Inuyasha roared as he slammed the Tetsusaiga into the ground.

Three streams of yellow energy ripped through the ground towards thee creature. The streams were large and fast as they ripped through the dirt like a shark through water. The creature was caught completely off guard from the sudden assault from the side. Its attention had been focused slowly on the stranger and it had completely missed Inuyasha's movements. It tried to get out of the way of the attack, but it was too little too late. The creature had been caught up in the attack and was engulfed.

"_GYAAAHHH!_" it bellowed as it was captured by the blast.

Inuyasha smirked as he witnessed his attack hit, "Teach you to ignore me."

The stranger could only gape at the pure destruction of the attack. He hadn't seen anything like that before. The dust from the attack billowed for a short while before coming to a rest. When it did, the stranger couldn't help but not be surprised. Inuyasha on the other hand was very much surprised.

"What the-!" Inuyasha gaped. "It should be dead after that attack!"

Standing in the middle of the three gashes in the ground, was the insect creature. It was still very much alive and breathing. It was having trouble standing though. Two large gashes were on its shoulders and one was in the middle of its head. Bright green blood was running freely from those wounds. Some of it was even leaking from its mouth. It continued to stand there dumbly before a gust of wind had moved by and knocked the creature over. It landed with a loud thump on the dirt. Inuyasha smirked before a loud snap followed the thump and he saw that the creature's buckle had snapped open right down the middle. Inside of it were three strange runes.

The stranger didn't waste any time as he raced over to the creature to make sure that it was truly down. Inuyasha was likewise struggling to get closer.

"Hey!" he shouted at the stranger. "Are you stupid or something? At least wait for me to kill it!"

"You can't kill it!" the stranger frowned. "It is impossible to kill."

"Yeah right," Inuyasha snorted. "Nothing is impossible to kill."

"Fool," the stranger sighed before he reached into his tunic and brought out a small card. It had a red back and was blank with only chains appearing on the front. He stood above the creature, who had began breathing heavier as it saw the card. "One down, fifty-three to go."

With that, the stranger dropped the card onto the creature. The second it touched the creature's skin, it began to bellow loudly. Everyone close by had actually stopped to witness the event. Even the lizard creature was stunned as it watched what was happening. The insect creature's body was engulfed in green energy as the card began to spin on its axis on the creature's chest. Then, as if being sucked in by a straw, the creature was absorbed into the card. In a final flash of light, the card spun right back into the stranger's hand. He took a moment to look at it.

"I was right," he commented. "Category Ace: Change Beetle."

"What the hell did you just do!" Inuyasha demanded as he staggered closer to the stranger.

Before the stranger could even offer some kind of explanation, the lizard creature went into a rage of hisses and charged at the one who had defeated its fellow Undead. It was waving its sword wildly as it aimed to kill the one who attacked its fellow Undead. Inuyasha gripped Tetsusaiga, ready for another fight while Kagome, Shippo, Miroku, and Kagome tried to follow the creature and stop it before it could hurt anyone.

"What are you waiting for, you idiot!" Inuyasha snapped. "Run!"

"I think not," the stranger replied while untying his sash.

Letting the cloth fall to the ground, a belt could be seen underneath it. The buckle seemed to be a little large with a blue material that looked like it was sapphire made up the buckle. In the centre of it was a symbol Kagome recognized as a spade from packs of playing cards. The buckle also had a slot in the side big enough to fit a piece of paper, or something just as thin.

The stranger stared coldly at the charging lizard creature and didn't bat an eye. His focus seemed to be on the card in his hand. He held it between his right index and ring fingers. He had raised his right arm so that his hand was left of his face. His palm was facing outwards and towards the creature.

"Henshin!" the stranger suddenly called.

In one fluid motion, the stranger brought his hand down and slid the card into the small slot before passing the same hand over the buckle itself. The blue part of the buckle then began to glow brightly as the card was finally inserted. There was a flash as a rectangular blue field flew from the buckle and grew large enough to let a person jump through. The field had hit the lizard creature and had sent it flying into the ground. When the field stopped, everyone could see the image of a large rhino beetle on it with the spade symbol on its back. The stranger remained quiet as he then ran at the field. He never stopped once even when he passed through it. When he did pass through, he had changed.

He was donned in armor befitting of a samurai. His chest, waist, and shoulder armor was a sliver color which was highlighted with a sapphire blue. His pants and footwear were also blue with gold rings around his ankles. His armguards were deep blue with silver spades outlined on them. Even his hands had blue armor on them. On his waist was a katana which had a base like a saber. A silver spade was also depicted on his chest. His helmet was silver withfaceplate to match. His eyeholes were covered by a red glass-like material. Adorned on the forehead was a single horn. On the samurai's back was a banner which most samurai used to show which lord they served. This banner held a large blue spade with thirteen empty circles underneath it. Only one of them had been filled with blue.

The lizard creature did not seem as impressed as Inuyasha and the others were. It quickly got back to its feet with a hiss and began to charge again. The blue samurai quickly drew his sword and likewise charged.

The two moved into a sword-swinging frenzy. Their moves were fast and powerful. Both of them didn't want to lose this battle and thus put all their might into every swing. The blue samurai dodged underneath a sideways strike and connected with an upwards slash which caused the creature to stagger. He didn't let up as he continued to slash away at the creature. It hissed and tried to retaliate, but the samurai managed to dodge the attacks and strike back with a few of his own. The lizard creature's movements were becoming sluggish as it was dealt more damage. The blue samurai saw that the battle was about to end and leapt forward with an overhead slash which easily made contact with the creature. The creature staggered back before collapsing on the ground. Its belt buckle snapped open as it futilely tried to get back up.

"Two down. Fifty-two to go," the blue samurai commented as he flicked his wrist and another blank card appeared in his hand.

The blue samurai then tossed the card at the lizard creature and made contact. Everyone watched in fascination as the creature was sucked inside of the card before it flew back into the samurai's hand. On his banner, the second circle filled in with blue to match the first.

"Category Two: Slash Lizard," the samurai read as he looked at the card.

Everyone was silent in amazement at what they had seen. Miroku had never seen such a sealing before and Sango was curious as to his weapons. Kagome wanted to know what kind of power he possessed while Shippo believed that he had found a new idol. Inuyasha had his own questions which he wanted answered right away.

"Okay, buddy!" he snapped as he limped in front of the samurai. "Just who the hell are you?"

"As I am now?" the samurai asked. "I am known as Kamen Rider Blade."

"Kamen Rider…" Kagome began, "Blade…?"

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	3. Ranma Love Hina

This fic is a crossover between Ranma ½ and Love Hina. It is a story of how Ranma Saotome is switched with Keitaro Urashim by the power of an Amazon artifact. Now Rama is living life in Keitaro's shoes as he heads towards Hinata House. He now has to deal with the residents, anticipating becoming the manager, and having to deal with the promise of getting into Tokyo U. Luckily; Ranma is used to pulling off the impossible so he may have an ace up his sleeve in case of emergencies. If you wish to contact me, send any emails by instant message.

By Ten-Faced Paladin

Chapter 1: Girl's Dorm? I'm Doomed.

Ranma Saotome was not someone who complained about his life regularly. Sure, he had every right to in certain situations. In others, he started it with his big mouth or made it worse, but he usually was fully in his rights to complain about some of the things that happened to him. He was currently experiencing one of those things.

At the moment, he was walking down a quiet street which had some rather nice trees looking and the nearby buildings seemed rather peaceful. It was painfully obvious that Ranma was nowhere near Nerima. If he was then the usual throng of challengers, rivals, fiancées, or fathers trying to force him to marry one of said fiancées would sooner or later be trying to find him. It was also in these times of peace that Ranma would feel at least a little nervous. The oddity of all this was that he was rather calm. So what was his reason for being so calm? He knew that his daily headaches were nowhere near and were probably never going to catch up with him.

How was he so sure? Did he finally run away from it all? Did he finally put his foot down? Did he go for a final climactic battle with the Wrecking Crew which left Nerima in shambles and would be spoken of in stories for years to come?

Nope. Ranma had been transported into a manga.

Now, a lot of you are probably wondering how this had happened. It sounds way too crazy for even Ranma's insane life. However, there is a good reason for the pigtailed martial artist's sudden relocation.

It had all started with Cologne. She was a matriarch of the Joketsuzoku, Chinese Amazons, and the great-grandmother of Ranma's Chinese fiancée, Shampoo. The aged Amazon had fished out one of the few relics that the ancient founder of Ranma's school, Anything Goes, didn't manage to pilfer when he raided the Amazon village sometime in his youth. The item was a mirror called the Mirror of Hctiws. It had the power to take the position of one person and switch them with another. In short, it would allow the person holding the mirror to switch lives with the person it was reflecting on. Cologne and Shampoo's plan was to have the younger Amazon use it so that everything that was Akane's could be switched with Shampoo. Their ultimate aim was Ranma's feelings concerning the youngest Tendo. The actual trick was getting the right limiter on the mirror so it only switched Ranma's feelings rather than everything else.

Unfortunately, the chaos of Nerima reared its ugly head when Mousse, the myopic would-be suitor of Shampoo and Hidden Weapons master, overheard the effects of the mirror and actually managed to it the mirror from Cologne through use of his cursed form. However, in his excitement, he stopped listening after he heard what the mirror did in full so he was not aware that it switched everything with a person, not just a single part. Mousse's plan was to use it on Ranma so that Shampoo's affection would be switched to the Hidden Weapons user. This started a chase after the myopic duck which had the mirror clenched firmly in his beak, heading straight for the Tendo Dojo.

At the time, Ranma was allowing himself to lounge for a change. He had finished his daily sparring with his dad and Akane was going to hang out with her friends. Despite the fathers trying to browbeat him into going with her 'so to get closer to his future wife,' both Ranma and Akane got them to back down. So, Ranma was reading a manga while everyone was going through their day.

The manga Ranma was reading was Love Hina. It was one of his favorites as well. He had gotten hooked on it after Kasumi showed him the complete series she had collected and let him read it since he looked bored. The reason Ranma was so into it was because he felt he had a lot in common with the leading male character, Keitaro Urashima. Both he and Keitaro had their own problems with women which a lot of guy would think were a blessing. Ranma had a host of gorgeous girls chasing him while Keitaro lived with another group of equally attractive females. The problem was that the girls in Ranma's life resorted to violence way too often to solve their problems, while Keitaro had the girls in his life jump to conclusions and not bother to ask questions later. Both Ranma and Keitaro had their own dreams which not a whole lot of people cared to listen to, but supported now and then. Ranma wanted to be the best in his generation while Keitaro wanted to fulfill his promise and dream of going to Tokyo University with his childhood friend. Ranma had the Wrecking Crew to help him with all the fights they kept giving him while the girls of Hinata House would lend support or help Keitaro study since their friend Naru Narusegawa was trying for Tokyo U as well.

It was the ending which got Ranma to envy the former third year ronin. All the girls truly loved Keitaro in their own way and bonded to become their own happy family. Ranma didn't have a whole lot of that. The fiancees would selfishly demand his attention, only a little more forcibly since the failed wedding. His own family was still harping on him to do what they wanted. To be fair though, his mother was more understanding, since choosing a wife out of his numerous engagements was a very big choice. It didn't stop his father and Mr. Tendo from hounding him to marry Akane every chance it seemed they were getting closer.

Back to the story, Ranma was reading the first volume of Love Hina again when a duck holding a mirror came flaying through the window before trying to point the glass surface at Ranma. The pigtailed martial artists quickly recognized Mousse's cursed form and ducked for cover. (Pardon the pun.) Not two seconds after, Shampoo came crashing through the wall crying for Ranam not to look into the mirror as she tried to get it back from Mousse. Cologne hopped in after her great-granddaughter and proceeded to try and get the mirror away from Mousse before he spoiled their plans or did something to make the romantic situation between Ranma and Shampoo even worse. 

Mousse's own lack of eyesight proved to be his undoing as he crashed into a ceiling light, dropping the mirror to the floor. Shampoo, seeing her chance, dove for the mirror so as to try to savage her plan of ensnaring Ranma. Ranma likewise guessed that the mirror must be some kind of magic artifact that he would spell bad news for him if the Amazons got it so he dived for it as well. The volume of Love Hina was still tucked in his hand as he managed to catch the mirror before Shampoo. He then leaped back to get some breathing space from the Amazons. Cologne attempted to coax Ranma into giving back the mirror before something bad happened, but the Nerima chaos factor intervened again. When Ranma shifted his grip on the mirror, the reflective surface landed on a picture of Keitaro Urashima looking right back at it. The mirror instantly activated, blinding Ranma to the world before it faded back into the surroundings he was currently walking through.

Presently...

"Okay," He muttered to himself, looking around. "So I am currently in a place which looks eerily similar to Hinata Hot Spirings and I'm positive that the funky mirror had something to do with it."

As amazing as it was, he was right. Ranma had woken up alone near some trees with a travel bag slung over his shoulder and the mirror clutched in his right hand. He had long since put the mirror into his bag and started walking.

"Okay Ranma," the pigtailed martial artist sighed. "What are you gonna do now?"

The first thing Ranma did was look through his bag. He found a few sets of clothes and toiletries which a male would need. Thankfully his curse didn't seem to be active at the moment. He didn't get his hopes up though. Very few things could affect Jusenkyo curses. Further digging into the bag revealed several university level textbooks which would normally make Ranma's head spin. When he saw them, a voice at the back of his head was telling him what a number of the terms and other things meant. Slightly unnerved, he had continued digging until he finally found a wallet. Flipping it open, he found a piece of I.D. which helped him understand who he was.

"Ranma Urashima?" he blinked as he looked at the piece of plastic. "19 years old. Weird. I still feel like I'm 16. Oh well."

With all this information about his name, Ranma felt only slightly surprised when he found exam study materials and some papers pertaining to tests and quizzes for the cram school he was apparently attending. In all, this was beginning to feel very familiar to him.

"So...am I actually in Love Hina?" he muttered to himself in shock. He wouldn't put it past something the Amazons held in their possession. Shampoo seemed downright desperate to get her hands on that mirror. Cologne seemed just as desperate as her great-granddaughter.

"It would explain why Duck-boy was trying to get me to look at it," Ranma sighed. "If this is what it does then I'm glad I don't have to worry about him trying again."

After sighing to get some of the fatigue out of his system, he tried looking at the brighter side of things, "Ah well. If I was going to be stuck in a manga then I guess this is a pretty good one. I could have ended up in Evangelion or something. I could go without trying to save the world from Angels thank-you very much."

Putting his things back into the bag, Ranma continued walking. He had to decide what he was going to do next. The voice at the back of his head was telling him that his parents had kicked him out of the house for failing his Tokyo U entrance exam for the second time. It also told him that his grandmother ran a hotel in the area and that she might be able to take him in for a while.

"But the old lady's not there," Ranma reminded himself. "Not only that, but the hotel is now a girls dorm with most of the people there having hang-ups about perverts. I'd better watch my step."

Despite his numerous beatings dealt by Akane, Ranma acknowledged that he had deserved it on some level or another. Granted, the force Akane used for something as little as name calling was a little excessive, but still deserving. Keitaro on the other hand didn't deserve nearly as much. Sure, he may have had a problem with personal space or reading occupied signs, but the guy was just terminally clumsy with some of the worst luck in the world. Ranma figured that he didn't really deserve as many of the attacks he received.

Thinking about attacks got Ranma thinking about the resident swordswoman, Motoko Aoyama. He had seen several of her techniques and often wondered what it would be like to go against her. The thought made him grin. His grin only widened when he thought about fighting her older sister Tsuruko. Now that would be a fight to remember. Tsuruko had completely mastered her blade to a degree which had Ranma knowing that he wouldn't get out unscathed. That would make the fight even better since most of the Wrecking Crew couldn't even touch him anymore. Not since Saffron anyway.

Naru would be a little boring though. Her strengths were the same as Akane's; Pure power and nothing else. At least Naru had an excuse. She wasn't a martial artist. Akane on the other hand was raised by one and her skills were mediocre at best. Not to mention that her discipline was crap. He could at least admit it to himself, but he would get a serious thumping if he even hinted at it out loud. Luckily Naru was an understanding girl most of the time so he figured he wouldn't have any trouble, or at least very little of it.

Before he could continue with any further musing about the girls he was bound to meet, his feet stopped at a mountain of stairs which went straight up. Ranma returned his thoughts to reality as he could see Hinata House at the top of the hill. 

"Better see Haruka first," Ranma reminded himself, feeling a subconscious urge to go to Hinata House first. He knew what was waiting for him up there.

He silently walked up the stone steps while wracking his brains about everything he knew about Keitaro and his family. He knew Keitaro's promise back when he was young, which was a focus point in the manga so he was safe for when the subject would come up. He knew Keitaro's parents ran a confectionary which he knew was famous for the sweets it made. He also knew that Keitaro's parents were trying to pressure him into the family business, despite what Keitaro wanted to do. He knew Keitaro had two friends named Shirai and Haitani who were definite perverts. Keitaro also had an adopted little sister who was very attractive in her own gothic way. She was also deeply in love with her older brother. Ironically though, she hated sweets which made growing up with the Urashima parents somewhat tough since they liked to check with her on how their sweets tasted. Finally, there was Haruka. She was the chain-smoking tough girl who hated to be reminded of her age and her former relationship with the archeology professor Seta. She was still a tough girl and she definitely did not look her age. Ranma figured she was in her late twenties when he first saw her in the series.

His stopped is musings when he came to the cafe which Haruka ran to get some extra spending money for the dorm. Heaving a sigh, he gripped the door handle and opened it wide. Inside was the generic cafe layout with no customers oddly enough. Sitting at counter was none of than the black-haired woman herself. She was wearing her simple white sweater with a skirt and an apron with the cafe logo on it. She was reading a newspaper with a lit cigarette in her mouth. As the bell rang to announce a customer, she looked at Ranma with a smile.

"Well, well," she smiled slightly. "You sure a sight for sore eyes. How have you been Ranma?"

A little shocked at the welcoming smile, Ranma tried to keep his cool and continue as if he knew the woman, which technically he did, "All things considered, I'm doing okay."

"Oh really?" Haruka blinked, her smile fading for a moment. "So something bad happened and you're trying to hide it. Aren't you?"

"So much for dropping it gently," Ranma sighed. He then took a seat across from his 'aunt'. "To say the least, Mom and Pop kicked me out after failing the Tokyo U entrance exam."

Haruka sighed and shook her head. She folded up the newspaper and leaned back in her chair before taking another drag of her cancer stick. "Frankly, I'm not surprised. I understand your parents were really pushing for you to join their little business."

"Yeah well," Ranma grumbled. He was a little surprised how comfortable he was getting in talking to the older woman in front of him. "They may like making candy and stuff, but it's not what I want to do for the rest of my life."

"But they are your parents." Haruka pointed out with another slight smile. "It explains where you get your hard head and stubborness from."

"Boy does it ever," Ranma sighed, playing with his pigtail. Seems his parents and Keitaro's needed a lesson or two in listening to what other people had to say.

"So, moving on," Haruka spoke up. "You need a place to stay, don't you? Why else would you come all the way here after getting thrown out?"

"It's creepy when you can read between the lines like that," Ranma frowned, causing Haruka to snort in amusement. "But yeah, I do. I was hoping maybe Grandma had a vacancy or something. I've got enough money to pay and I do need a place to study for the next exams."

"Well, I'd love to help, but," Haruka sighed sadly. She really hated letting her nephew down like this. "Granny Hina isn't here. She went off on a world-wide sightseeing tour a while back. We only get the odd fax from her every now and again."

"Just my luck," Ranma sighed, fully expecting this. Now he just had to wait for the other shoe to drop.

"She also decided to turn her failing inn into a dorm for girls," Haruka continued. "Unless you somehow magically lose your manhood and sprout a pair of breasts in the next five minutes, I think you're out of luck kiddo."

Ranma snickered sadly at the irony. This was probably one of the few situations where his curse would come in handy. If he still had it in this world, then he might use it later, but he didn't want to be painted as a perverted freak.

"Shoot," Ranma grumbled. "Maybe I could stay in the cafe or something? Could we talk to the girls that live in the dorm now? They can't be totally unreasonable, can they?"

'_If you only knew,_' Haruka thought inwardly, knowing very well at least one resident's view on men in general. She then spoke up, "I suppose we could try to convince them. Just give me a few minutes to..."

She was cut off as the door opened to some more customers who were coming in for something to eat. Recognizing his cue to leave, Ranma picked up his bag and aimed for the door, "I'll wait for you up at the house. Take your time."

Haruka wanted to try and warn him, but he was already gone. Shaking her head, she silently prayed for the gods to have mercy on the poor boy. Although, she got the nagging feeling in the back of her head that he might not need it.

Ranma shut the door to the cafe and continued to walk up the stairs to the dorm. When he reached the top, he took a moment to admire it. Hinata House looked just as magical as it did in the pictures in the manga. It often said that it could grant a person's wish so long as they never gave up. Ranma silently hoped that maybe this would happen for him. He may not be the original Urashima who was supposed to come here, but everyone else thought he was so he had a promise to keep. If there was something both Ranma and Keitaro believed in, it was keeping promises.

"Well, here it is," Ranma couldn't help but smile. "Hinata House."

Steeling himself, Ranma walked to the door and noticed the sign that said it was a girls dorm. How Keitaro had missed it, Ranma could never figure out. Stepping inside, he saw several sets of indoor slippers near the door which hinted to other residents. Looking at the nice decor, Ranma decided to try and catch someone's attention, if anyone could hear him.

"Hello?" he called. "Can anyone hear me?"

There was no answer, which didn't surprise Ranma. When Keitaro showed up, no one was any wiser that he was there until Naru walked in on him in the hot spring and accidentaly fondled him thinking he was Kitsune. That girl's eyesight was as bad as Mousse's sometimes.

'_Okay,_' Ranma thought inwardly as he stepped deeper into the lobby. '_If I remember right, Kitsune and Naru are probably somewhere on the upper floors before deciding to go to take a bath, Shinobu is doing laundry which she lets air dry on the top floor, Motoko likes to practice up there, and Su is glued to her most of the time. No one is going to be on the first floor for a while so might as well get comfortable and hope Haruka finishes up soon._'

Figuring that he was going smoothly at the moment, Ranma stepped into the lobby and into the living room where several chairs, couches, and a television set were kept. Placing his bag on the ground, he sat on the couch and leaned back for some rest. His day had been weird even by his standards and some rest would definitely be appreciated.

As Ranma sat down, he felt some tension leave his body. He had learned to enjoy his moments of relaxation whenever he could get them. People would usually just end up attacking him for some reason or another. He could expect it here in Hinata House for a while after Granny Hina finally sends him the papers making him the new manager. That was not going to go over well with them for a while.

His senses suddenly perked up when he heard someone running down the hall. It was a quick patting sound which signaled bare feet running on the floor. Ranma opened his eyes and turned to see who was coming. What he saw was a tanned blur flying at him with a foot outstretched.

"Heyas!" the blur cheered happily as it soared at Ranma.

Ranma reacted quickly and ducked underneath the blow, letting the tanned blur shoot past him. The blur collided with the chair opposite with a soft thud. Ranma turned to see who had leaped at him. Who he found was a girl in a school uniform, elementary if he guessed right, and her skin was a nice bronze. Her hair was blonde with a small dot in the middle of her forehead. Ranma instantly recognized her. This was the hyperactive foreigner, Kaolla Su.

Su blinked in surprise. She then broke into a huge grin. "Wow! That was so cool! You're really good!"

"Thanks," Ranma nodded. He decided to play his part to keep from being seen as weird. "Uh...who are you?"

"My name's Su!" the foreign girl giggled as she scrambled into a sitting position on the chair. The smile didn't leave her face. "Are you here to play with me?"

"Um...no," Ranma replied. "My name's Ranma Urashima. Where is everyone? Haruka was hoping to talk to the girls living here."

"I know! I know!" Su cheered while waving a hand in the air like she was in a class. "I'll show you! C'mon!"

Su leaped forward from her chair and grabbed Ranma's hand. He knew she was strong from some of the manga he read, but it was still surprising to feel the real thing. Su tugged at Ranma's arm, yanking him out of his seat and to the stairs. He could feel that some kind of bad vibe coming from this, but he figured that if he was with one of the girls that lived in the house then he would be okay. Su dragged him up the stairs onto the second floor. She giggled the whole way like a kid who just got a new toy. Ranma didn't notice anyone on the second floor and he knew that both Kitsune and Su lived on that floor so if the squinty-eyed party girl wasn't there, then she was probably in the bath with Naru by now. Su continued to drag Ranma by the arm up yet another set of stairs.

Su's drag along tour came to an abrupt halt when both she and Ranma crashed into something that was just heading down the stairs. They both tumbled to the wooden floor and Ranma could feel fabric falling on his body as he began to get his bearings straight.

"Oopsie!" Su giggled as she sat up. Ranma noticed that she had a large samurai gi draped over her shoulders. It was definitely Motoko's. 

"Su?" a new feminine voice asked. Ranma turned to see a girl around Su's age. She had short purple hair and what looked like an innocent face from what Ranma could see that wasn't blocked by the sweater that had landed on her head. "Is that you? Is there someone with you?"

"Yep!" Su laughed. "I found him downstairs! He's really cool! He dodged my 'heyas kick'!" 

"Huh?" Shinobu blinked as she got the sweater off her head. Her eyes focused on Ranma, who had several of the fallen clothes in his hands. Some of them were obviously panties. 

"Hi. I'm-" Ranma began, but he was interrupted.

"KYAAAAAHHHH!" Shinobu screamed. "A thief!"

Ranma knew that this was going to turn out badly. Shinobu had freaked out just like in the manga. It was what set off the chain of events that had initially gotten Keitaro branded as a pervert. If he was right, then someone was going to show up in the next few seconds.

"A thief!" a new, more mature female voice spoke up.

Ranma could feel the new ki approaching. This one was definitely not a kid. This one was a young woman who had extensive training and experience in martial arts. The tight reign on her ki was enough of a clue to tell him that. He didn't even need to turn to know that he was now in the company of the raven-haired swordswoman Motoko Aoyama. This was probably not going to be a peaceful experience.

"So this vile male thinks he can steal women's undergarments," Motoko growled as she glared at Ranma's back. He hand was gripped securely on her sword.

"Hold on a sec!" Ranma cried as he turned to face her. He had to admit, she was very attractive. This wasn't the time to think about that though. "I am no thief! If you'd just let me explain-!"

"Enough!" Motoko snapped as she drew her sword. "I will have none of your lies male! Now pay for your crimes! _Air-Cutting Flash!_"

Motoko slashed through the air and sent a wave of ki through the air. Apparently Motoko was confident in her abilities and didn't expect to go against a martial artist. Ranma's mind instantly went into combat mode as he checked his surroundings. A: Two girls behind him who may or may not have experience like this. His knowledge of what went on in Hinata House before Keitaro arrived was non-existent. B: there was a wave of ki which was proven to be able to cut through large boulders, unlike that moron Kuno who could only manage watermelons, wood, and gouge into stone. C: User of said ki was an accomplished and experienced swordswoman who had a definite hang-up about perverts. With all these concepts in mind, his mind came to a single conclusion.

Acting quickly, Ranma drew his arms back and began to concentrate his ki, mixed with his confidence, into his cupped hands. Everything seemed to go in slow motion. As the ki began to be collected in Ranma's hands, Motoko also noticed it and her eyes widened in shock at what she was seeing.

"_Moko Takabisha!_" Ranma called before launching his sphere at the wave of ki that was coming at him.

BOOM!

The resulting explosion shook the walls of Hinata House and dust got kicked up. Shinobu and Su couldn't see a single thing as both Motoko and Ranma had gotten engulfed inside of the large dust cloud.

"WOW!" Su cheered happily. "I didn't know there were other people besides Motoko who could use that ki stuff."

Shinobu was just stunned silent. She was completely surprised to not only see a guy in Hinata House, but also seeing something like this happening at the same time.

'_I don't believe this!_' Motoko thought, cursing herself. '_I didn't even think that this male was a martial artist!_'

Motoko let her senses expand to try and sense where the male was. She couldn't hear his movements, which hinted that he was experienced at martial arts. She would have to be careful lest this perverted fool actually get away. Suddenly, her senses snapped as she felt someone approaching at a quick pace. Gripping her blade, she focused a small amount of her ki into it and swung, aiming to take the pervert down.

"Hah!" she cried. The collected ki released, blowing the dust away and letting everyone see what was happening. Ranma was not on the receiving end of the attack, as Motoko had been expecting. He was actually in the air as he was soaring over the attack, meaning he had felt it coming and managed to dodge it. Both martial artists caught each other's eyes and there was a brief connection. It was an acknowledgement of each others skills. Motoko accepted that Ranma was a commendable martial artist since he was agile enough to dodge her attack while Ranma accepted that Motoko was an experienced swordswoman with the mastery of the skills she was throwing around.

The moment was over as Ranma came back to the ground and turned to see Motoko recovering from missing. She quickly turned to face Ranma with a frown on her face.

"Watch it next time!" Ranma sighed. "You could have really hurt someone. Namely me!"

"That was the idea, pervert!" Motoko frowned as she took another battle stance.

"Now hold on one second!" Ranma snapped. "Just how am I a pervert?"

"You were stealing our underwear!" Motoko hissed. "I saw you collecting it in your hands! You even scared Shinobu!"

"That was an accident!" Ranma cried. "Su was dragging me and we-!" 

"Enough!" Motoko snapped in reply. "Taste my blade!"

Motoko charged forward with her blade raised. Although Ranma was tempted to fight the swordswoman right where she was, this wasn't like fighting Kuno, who was a wanna-be in a lot of ways. Motoko had experience and true skill to back up her pride. If they fought in the hall, then there would be a lot of destruction that he would have to pay for. Su and Shinobu might get caught in the crossfire. That was something he didn't want to risk.

"This is no place to fight," Ranma frowned as he watched Motoko charge. "We'll take this to the roof!"

Ranma then turned tail and ran for the stairs. Motoko just continued to chase him while making various threats that each sounded painful. With the two younger girls, Su wanted to see who was going to win so she was instantly up on her feet. She grabbed Shinobu's hand and began dragging the young chef along with her.

"C'mon!" Su cheered. "I wanna see the fight! It's gonna be so cool!"

"Ah!" Shinobu gasped as Su's strength was put to the purpose of bringing her along.

Ranma dashed down the halls as he headed towards the stairs that would lead towards the roof. Well, if he remembered properly from the manga he read. Motoko was still running at an even pace behind him. She was one determined woman who was still intent on destroying her target. Further behind her was Su dragging Su along. In all, it was a strange chase that was coming.

It was about to get wilder.

"What's all this yelling about?" a new female voice shouted as two sets of feet could be heard coming up another set of stairs. Ranma inwardly cursed at his rising situation. It seemed either his or Keitaro's luck was still going on strong. It figured that Naru and Kitsune would appear in front of him rather than somewhere behind, never mind actually hearing the commotion all the way in the Hot springs. Well, maybe they were already out or something.

"It's a pervert!" Motoko cried as she continued chasing Ranma.

"What!" cried the female voice. Ranma looked up ahead to see the red-headed Naru and her squinty-eyed friend Kitsune turned around the corner. Naru was already looking ticked while Kitsune had her usual suspicious frown. The older girl was a party girl by heart so she was used to guys being pervy, but it didn't mean she appreciated all the attentions a guy could give. 

"I got him!" Naru cried as she reared back her fist for one of her 'Naru Punch' attacks.

Ranma saw it coming a mile away. As Naru unleashed her devastating punch, Ranma had already begun his leap into the air. He went right over Naru's punch as the long-haired girl stumbled slightly from overextending her reach. Ranma really didn't remain long enough to see if she regained her balance or not. Motoko was right on his heels and knowing Kitsune, she might convince Su to start using some of her inventions to try and subdue him. The roof was his only chance for some space and probably his chance of escape.

Leaving Naru to curse about her aim, Ranma bolted up the last set of stairs. He found himself in the open air and standing on the wooden roof of Hinata House. If he wasn't one of the types who could jump off a three-story building without a thought, Ranma might have figured that he was royally screwed. As it was, this was just a battlefield he could take advantage of. Of course, the only one he might have problems with was Motoko since she was an actual fighter. Still, he really didn't want to actually hurt these girls unless he had one hell of a good reason. Being in the middle of a misunderstanding definitely was not one of those kinds of reasons.

"We got you now!" Naru's voice called from behind.

Ranma turned around to see the girls of Hinata House behind him. The three eldest looked ready to throttle him.

"Look," Ranma tried to reason with them. "This is just a misunderstanding."

"I think not," Motoko frowned as she raised her sword. "Now we shall dispense justice."

Ranma felt his muscles tense as he prepared to move. These girls weren't kidding with their threats as they prepared to hit him. While Ranma could dodge them all day, he didn't exactly feel like it. Besides, it would only make Naru and Motoko more determined to hit him.

"Hey!" a familiar voice called from the stairs behind the girls. "Would you mind not killing my nephew?"

Everyone turned to the stairs and saw Haruka. She looked as calm as ever with a cigarette in her mouth and her arms crossed.

"Nice timing Haruka," Ranma smiled. "Finished your business?"

"I heard some explosions and decided that I had better haul my butt up here before someone got killed," Haruka frowned.

"Great timing Haruka!" Naru spoke up. "We caught a pervert!"

"I am not a pervert!" Ranma snapped angrily. What was it with girls seeing every guy as a pervert?

"Enough," Haruka sighed, effectively silencing everyone. They all knew not to mess with the woman. "Better. Now let's take this inside before another fight breaks out."

"Absolutely not!" Naru cried out angrily.

The residents of Hinata House and the single male relocated their argument to the living room. Both Haruka and Ranma explained the situation. Once Ranma asked the fateful question, Naru was up in arms.

"There's no way we can let a sicko like you stay!" she cried.

"And what makes me a sicko!" Ranma asked angrily, remembering why he didn't like Naru in the beginning of the series.

"Because you're a perverted panty thief!" Naru retorted. "You tried to make off with out underwear and terrified Shinobu!"

"Um…," the younger girl spoke up. "I was really more surprised than anything, but you are a little intimidating Mr. Urashima."

"Really?" Ranma blinked. He began to scratch the base of his pigtail when he heard the girl speak. Was he really intimidating? "Uh…sorry about that. I didn't mean to scare you."

"It..it's okay," Shinobu blushed. She definitely wasn't used to being the centre of attention.

"It doesn't change the fact that we can't let a guy stay here!" Naru frowned.

"I'm not asking you to do something impossible," Ranma sighed. "I'm just one guy. You all outnumber me anyway."

Naru calmed down at Ranma's words. Motoko also took them into consideration. They did outnumber him and would be capable of keeping an eye on him. With the thoughts of pervert bashing entering their minds, they had forgotten about the things Ranma had done to avoid getting hit.

"He's got a point," Haruka nodded. "Besides, I doubt he'd be too busy studying for Tokyo U to do anything dumb."

"TOKYO U!" four of the five girls cried out. Their gazes turned straight to Ranma. Only Su seemed to be confused about what was going on.

"Yeah. I'm studying for Tokyo U," Ranma answered.

Kitsune began to smile as she heard Ranma's confirmation. Here was a Tokyo U hopeful right at her feet. If he managed to get in then he might be able to strike it rich. He was perfect for her master plan!

"Well, if that's the case then I think he can stay," the elder blonde smiled as she sat up. "After all, if he wants in then he'll have to work hard. There will be no time for girls."

"Kitsune has a point," Motoko reluctantly nodded. "If Urashima expects to get into Tokyo U then he will not allow himself to be perverted. I think we can keep him in line."

"Yay! I want him to stay too!" Su giggled. "He's so much fun!"

"Um…I don't mind if he stays," Shinobu added shyly. 

Naru sighed. She knew when she was beaten. There was no helping it. it looked like the pervert was going to stay, "Fine! He can stay for now."

All the girls turned to Ranma and nodded to him, "Welcome to Hinata House!"

To Be Continued…


	4. Ranma 10 12

I do not own Ranma ½ or Ben 10. I am only writing this for fun. No money is being made from this and I don't plan for any money to be made from it at all. I hope you enjoy.

Ranma 10 ½

By Ten-Faced Paladin

Chapter 1: Enter the Omnitrix

**Outer Space**

The void of space was a truly wondrous thing. It gave off the sense of infinity and calm. The infinite darkness was something that could intimidate someone. However, as empty as space can be, it was very far from empty.

BOOM!

A large alien craft was being targeted in the midst of a battle. It appeared to be a more graceful ship with curves and made for flying. However, that beauty was slowly being destroyed in blasts by the larger ship.

This larger ship was mostly dark colors and had a much more sinister appearance to it. It was unrelenting as it blasted away at the ship. One lucky shot made impact against the smaller ship's engines, killing them instantly. The smaller ship was now dead in space and vulnerable to further assault.

On the bigger ship in the command chamber, there was an alien organism sitting in the command chair. He was donned in a black suit and had green skin. His head was bald and had tentacles coming from the sides. He also had a green item which circled around the sides of his head. His eyes were an evil red glow. However, the most intimidating thing about him was the large muscled frame that he was in possession of.

"Dead in the air," the sinister figure chuckled. "Now I will have what I desire. Prepare for boarding!"

The robot drones that this alien commanded accepted the orders and began to move again. The drones themselves all had the usual red color scheme. They were quadruped with a slight crab appearance. They were also completely loyal to their master. Tis was shown as they followed their master's order.

The ship flew in closer to its target before it was hovering right over it. A long tube extended from the bigger ship before landing on the smaller one. Impacts could be heard from the end, which signaled how the hull of the smaller ship was being punctured for easy access.

The sinister alien and contingent of his robots went through the lift and went through the hole that his tube had created. He carelessly ran through the hallways of the enemy ship until he came to a door which was secured tightly.

"Heh," he smirked. "Child's play."

One of the robots stepped forward and brought out an attachment which was being held in its metal body. It looked like a welding torch. The robot brought the torch to the door and began to cut through it like butter. The steel door fell to the ground with a loud clang as smoke wafted from the melted edges.

The tentacled alien walked through the hole with some expectation on his face before coming into an empty room. His eyes widened when he saw what he was looking for was nowhere in sight. A growl escaped his throat before a roar followed it.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Extending from the ship, a spike-shaped missile streaked out towards the closest planet that it could find. In this case, a blue planet unkown to many beings in the universe that the natives like to call Earth.

As the object flew closer to the planet, a piece of shrapnel from the battle impacted against the object. The hurtling object was knocked slightly off course from its original destination. It was still going to land on the Earth, but now it was going to land in a different landmass than the one who sent it had been intending.

**Earth-Japan**

Ranma Saotome was staring into the fire that he had set up in the wilderness. He had decided to take a training trip. Nerima was bugging him since the failed wedding and he was tired of it. it had been peaceful for a while, but that didn't last long before it started up again. Shampoo and Ukyo seemed to believe that he would be grateful that they helped stop the wedding and actually seemed confused why he wasn't thanking them. The rivals were fighting as desperately as they could, but the Jusenkyo cursed ones were also putting their wrath down on Happosai. Not that they were making any progress though.

Akane was mellowed out a little, but her temper was as bad as ever against the fiancées and rivals. Of course the fathers weren't helping out a lot with their insistence that the two be married as soon as possible. Nodoka kept mentioning how nice a couple they were and hinting about grandchildren, but Ranma could take that. At least she wasn't trying to force them together with no thought about the cost. Nabiki was as cold as ever and managed to hide her tracks very well about selling invitations to the wedding, but asking the fiancées how they knew about it answered the question rather quickly.

With all of it coming together, Ranma needed some time alone. That was the reason why he was in the mountains alone in the first place. He had managed to slip away from the chaos in the night and left a letter so everyone would know he was okay and that he was coming back. Of course, the fiancées probably go looking for him anyway since they would see it as a chance to score some points. Not that they would with the attitude that they sported, fighting over him like a piece of property.

"I'm sick of this," he sighed.

He looked up to the sky and observed the clouds as they waved by. Sometimes Ranma envied the balls of fluff. They didn't have to worry about anything and could just go where they wanted. No responsibilities, no battles to fight, and best of all, no fiancées out to try and marry him.

As he was looking into the sky, he noticed a small bright speck in the sky. He blinked at it slightly, thinking it a little odd that a star was out in broad daylight. Weren't they supposed to only be visible at night? Even Ranma wasn't dumb enough to believe otherwise.

The star began to grow bigger right before Ranma's eyes and he suddenly realized that he wasn't looking at a star; he was looking at a meteor!

"Oh man!" he cried as he stood up. "Figures. Only this kind of thing would happen to me!"

The meteor shot towards the ground in all its flaming glory. It was aimed right at Ranma's camp, so the martial artist decided that it was time to vacate the premises immediately! 

"Yow!" Ranma cried as the meteor crashed to the ground with a resounding boom. The force of the impact shook the ground and forced Ranma to stumble and hit the dirt. The dirt trembled as the meteor skidded across the ground before finally coming to a stop.

The pigtailed martial artists looked up to see the devastation. There was a large crater in the ground and a long trench that went on after that. There were some minor fires in the dirt and some trees had been uprooted. 

"Aw man my stuff!" Ranma cried. He dashed to what used to be his campsite and found that what had been the fires in the trench was actually what was left of his belongings that had survived the impact. It seemed like his camping trip had been cut short.

Heaving a sigh to himself, Ranma tried to relax. He was understandably shaken since he had been almost creamed by a meteor. That would have been a great way to go out. Ranma Saotome, the defeater of princes and kings, only to be taken out by a chunk of flying space rock.

"Maybe I can make a gift out of it," Ranma shrugged. "It might get Nabiki off my back since she'll be able to sell it for something."

After inspecting to see if there was anything else he could salvage, Ranma walked towards the final resting point of the meteor that almost creamed him. He arrived at the crater and was expecting a hunk of rock, but instead he found a perfecting round ball that looked like it had black lines over it.

"Now what the heck is this?" Ranma asked no one as he stepped closer.

The ball itself seemed pretty harmless from first glance, and since Ranma really never looked before he leaped, he stepped into the crater and closer to the ball. As he came closer, the ball let out a hissing sound before the top half opened and released a bright green glow. It caused Ranma to pause for a moment before he realized that he couldn't feel anything coming from whatever was inside. Now sure that he wasn't going to get hurt, her pressed onward to see what was inside the ball.

What he did find was what looked like some kind of bracelet. It was manly black except for four white tubes running from the centre. In the centre was a round circle that had a diamond pattern in it that was glowing brightly. Around the edge of the circle were four green dots. Right underneath the circle was a prominent green button which stood out. To Ranma, it didn't look like something dangerous. 

"Cool. A watch from outer space," Ranma snickered as he peered at the device.

It didn't appear to be dangerous so Ranma started to reach inside to grab the watch in question. Before his fingers could touch the item in question, the watch band seemed to unravel itself before actually flying through the air and wrapping itself around Ranma's left wrist,

"Ack!" Ranma cried. He grabbed the watch and pulled at it as much as he could. "Get off me! I didn't want to wear you! Leggo!"

As much as he pleaded and pulled, the watch just did not want to let go of him. It was stuck like glue and even Ranma's considerable strength was not enough to even make the thing move. After several moments of fighting with it, he gave up and let his arms drop.

"Fine," he groaned. "If you don't want to let go then you can stay. You'll probably get wrecked though."

He wasn't sure if the item in question was listening to him, but he figured if it could suddenly move and latch itself to him, it was probably alive on some level. Of course, that probably wouldn't last long by the time he got back to Nerima. The rivals would be all over him; trying to make sure he stayed gone.

"Well, since you incinerated all my stuff, I might as well head home," Ranma grumbled. "I just hope Nabiki will lay off about the debt until I can get it replaced."

With another depressed sigh, he began walking in the direction of the Nerima district. However, he had no clue about the amazing object which had entered his life and what it was capable of.

**Outer Space**

The sinister alien growled as he returned to his ship, angered by his failure to secure the device which would give him ultimate power. His anger was so great he even smashed a few of his drones on the way back to his bridge.

"I want scanners after the trail of the omnitrix!" he bellowed. "NOW!"

The drones went into a flurry as they went to consoles to start their search for their lost quarry. However, as the alien was looking at his viewing screen, red symbols began going across it.

"Sensor array has been hit!" he cried. "Blast! It could take years to track it down!"

His map broadened to see which way the omnitrix had gone. There were so many directions that could have went and it had gone only one way. However, one way looked interesting.

"Hmm," the alien pondered. "Perhaps it hasn't gone far at all. Set course for that blue planet!"

The drones made tone of affirmation before they continued on their work. The alien commanding them just leaned back in his chair and waited to arrive at his destination. As he was settling into his chair for the ride, more alarms began going off.

"What is going on!" the alien demanded.

One of he drones pointed to a monitor and the alien's eyes widened when he saw the ship he had just raided charging up all its weapons. 

"Shoot it down!" the alien barked. "Now!"

The drones scurried to do as commanded, but they couldn't target the enemy ship quickly enough. The energy beams fired directly at the larger shi and blasted right through the armor which protected the occupants.

"NOOOO!" the alien bellowed a second time before explosions ripped through his ship.

**Earth-Nerima District**

Ranma calmly walked through the streets of the district he called home. It seemed the Wrecking Crew hadn't gone on a rampage after the found out he was gone. Then again, he had only been gone two days so they were probably still searching the district or blaming each other that he was gone.

"Better check to see of the dojo is still standing," he sighed as he followed the familiar route back to his place of residence.

As he was walking, he began to feel tense. It was a regular feeling for him since he half expected being attacked out of the blue for little or no reason at all. Usually it was someone misunderstanding something or just being bent on some kind of revenge.

"RANMA! PREPARE TO DIE!"

Case in point, Ryoga Hibiki. Otherwise known as the Eternally Lost Boy. Born with no sense of direction, he has been holding a grudge against Ranma since they went to school in Junior High. First it was about bread that Ranma had beaten him ot, then it was the duel that Ryoga was thee days late for, next was his Jusenkyo curse which Ranma took responsibility for, and finally it as the way that Ranma treated Akane.

"Hey Ryoga," Ranma sighed as he turned to face the bandanna-wearing boy who had somehow appeared behind him. Then again, Ryoga was always popping out of nowhere for no reason. "What's up?"

"So, decided to come back eh?" Ryoga growled. "After abandoning Akane like that? I'll make you pay!"

"I didn't abandon her you dip," Ranma frowned. "I just went on a training trip and a meteor wrecked my stuff so I had to come back."

"Bah, so the gods finally decided to punish you!" Ryohga growled. "Then I'll finish the job!"

Ryoga charged with his umbrella raised high. Ranma took one of his battle stances that he liked to use when fighting Ryoga. When one went against him, speed was usually the best way to go since he liked to use power techniques that could lay an opponent flat in one hit.

Ryoga swiped at Ranma with his umbrella numerous times, but Ranma had long since gotten used to his style of attack. He lay a punch to Ryoga's face and leaped back while he stumbled. Ryoga was very used to pain since he trained in the Bakusai Tenketsu, so a punch to the face only slowed him down for a minute or so.

"Listen Ryoga, I'm not in the mood for this today," Ranma spoke, trying to reason with his opponent. "Can't we take a rain check for this and fight another time?"

"Not when I can deal your punishment today!" Ryoga barked. "Bakusai Tenketsu!"

Ryoga pressed his finger into the ground and made an explosion which sent dust and debris flying through the air. It was a common move for him since it covered whatever moves he was going to make before he actually made them.

Rubble flew through the air and Ranma raised his arms to shield himself. As the rubble fell, a piece of stone fell and managed to hit the green button that was on the watch that he was wearing. It made a few beeping noises before the circle in the middle raise up on a small pillar with green lines in it. The symbol in the centre changed to a green diamond and the shadow of some kind of being appeared inside of it. It seemed like a bulky figure with spiked coming from its shoulders.

"Ah man," Ranma sighed as he saw the watch change. "Looks like it broke already."

"Face me Ranma!" Ryoga shouted as he dashed towards Ranma.

"Hope this is fixable. It's a cool watch," Ranma muttered, ignoring Ryoga. He reached to the raised circle and pressed it back down into the watch. As the circle and the rest of the device made contact, there was a flash of green light which lit up the surrounding area.

Ranma lurched over as he felt his entire body begin to change. It wasn't like his Jusenkyo curse in it was an almost unnoticeable change. This change was very noticeable and very physical. Green crystal spread from the watch and spread up his arm. His body began to get bulkier and grow in height. It didn't feel painful, but it did feel incredibly weird.

The change ended just as soon as it had begun, but boy was it EVER a change! Ranma had grown several inches taller and was now taller than even the adults. His arms were as thick as tree trunks and covered with green crystal. His head had met a similar fate with the crstal and was blockish with a spike of crystal running from the back of his head. Two spikes were jutting from his back as well. He had yellow eyes which had no pupils and made him look rather intimidating. He was donned in an armless jumpsuit that was black on the left side, and blue on the right side, matching Ranma's shirt from before the change. The symbol that was on the watch was planted over his heart and was white instead of green. 

"Waagh!" Ranma cried as he took in his new body. His voice was gruff and gravelly. "What the heck happened to me!"

Ryoga was stunned into stillness at what he was looking at. He rubbed his eyes just to make sure that he wasn't seeing things. After the third round of rubbing his eyes he had determined that yes, Ranma had turned himself into some kind of crystal monster. After a few moments of staring at the panicked crystal Ranma, he finally managed to get his voice back.

"Ranma…is that you?" he asked bluntly.

"Yes it's me stupid!" the crystal Ranma growled. "Who do I look like!"

"You look like a living gemstone!" Ryoga shot back. This had to be Ranma. No one else could sound so rude to him even in a crisis.

"I know!" Ranma growled as he held his head in his hands. "Why did this happen though? Why did I suddenly change into a damn crystal ornament?"

"Well, did you touch something?" Ryoga asked. The fight was the farthest thing from his mind at the moment. "Knowing you, you probably ate something."

"I did not!" Ranma snapped. "I just…oh crap."

"What?"

"That damn watch!" Ranma cried. "I knew I shouldn't have gone near it! I touch the head and next thing I know it changes me into this! I knew I shouldn't have touched it!"

Ranma felt his anger boiling at what was happening. This only seemed to happen to him and he was getting sick of it. He began to growl as he reared his fist back and slammed in into the ground. The second his fist hit the ground, it erupted in numerous green crystals which spiked in all directions. The entire area was silent as both Ranma and Ryoga stared with open mouths at what they had seen.

"Woah," Ranma blinked. "Didn't know I could do that."

Ryoga blinked in shock as he faced the technique that Ranma had pulled off in his new body, "Ranma….did you do that?"

Despite knowing that Ryoga had been witness to the incident, he answered, "Pretty sure I did."

As the thoughts of what he had just done hit home, Ranma began wondering if he could use this new body in his martial arts. Being able to generate crystal like Link and Pink made him giddy for if or when he had to fight against someone like them again. As with anything related to martial arts, Ranma began getting excited by the prospect of it.

"Hey, Ryoga," Ranma spoke up. "Wanna see what else I can do?"

Ryoga just nodded dumbly. From a rival's point of view, this would let him see what this new Ranma was capable of and what other abilities he had. It would be instrumental in facing against his rival and finally defeat him. Of course, from the viewpoint of a guy, he thought that this new Ranma looked really cool and being able to pull off moves like generating crystal just made it cool.

Ranma headed off for one of the many empty or abandoned lots in Nerima. Ryoga followed him easily since it was easy to follow a man made of crystal. Both martial artists walked into the lot before Ranma walked into the middle.

First thing Ranma did was concentrate on his skin. He wanted to see if he could grow crystal by will or if it was a fluke. He got his answer very quickly when he saw spikes growing out of his sin made of the very same crystal that his body was made of.

"All right!" he grinned. "Now we're getting somewhere!"

Ranma immediately flew into one of his many katas. He felt that his body was sluggish compared to his normal one, but it was definitely way stronger. He could still feel his ki and it was as strong as ever, but it was different. Definitely not human.

As Ranma was moving through his katas, he began pushing more crystal spikes out again. He wanted to see if he could do it while he was in the middle of something else. He happily did it with a grin and was getting more excited about it. As he unleased a forward punch, several crystals flew out of his hand and embedded themselves in the building in front of him. The crystals had actually punctures solid brick and concrete.

"Woah," Ryoga blinked. He hadn't been expecting that, but now at least he knew about it. It was a cool technique though.

"Wait until Mousse gets a load of me now!" Ranma grinned. "He hides weapons on his body; well I can MAKE weapons from my body!"

While Ranma was imagining he look on Mousse's face when he saw Ranma's new form, the mark on his chest was beginning to change. It was making a beeping sound while the image was blinking red. The light caught Ranma's attention and he turned his attention to it.

"Huh?" he blinked. That was then the moment when he was engulfed in red light which covered his entire body.

Ryoga covered his eyes to keep himself from going blind from the sudden flash. Ranma's entire body began to shrink and turn into more curves and less blocks. The light didn't last terribly long, but when it had finished, Ryoga could see Ranma again. To his surprise, Ranma was back to normal and very much human again.

"I'm normal?" Ranma blinked. He got a huge grin on his face before cheering loudly again. "I'm normal again! Woo-hoo! I'm me again!"

Ranma was leaping everywhere and cheering loudly with excitement as he celebrated his refound humanity. 

"Um…Ranma…?" Ryoga asked slowly. "Where exactly did you get that watch and are there any others?" Changing forms was always something Ranma had an advantage over him. Being able to change genders enabled Ranma to enter any type of martial arts tournament he wished, even if it was against women. Ryoga hated his pig form, despite being able to be close to Akane, but that form was useless in combat. If he could get his hands on the watch Ranma had now…

"Hey, what's wrong with this thing now?" Ranma questioned himself, looking at the red face of his new watch. "Is it broken again? Maybe I can turn into that diamond guy again."

"Why are you staring at your wrist?" asked Ryoga as he walked over to Ranma. He was still too stunned by the performance to get mad about being ignored by his friend/rival about the watch. "I asked where you got it."

"Oh, it came out of this metal ball that fell from the sky," Ranma answered as he continued to examine the device on his wrist. "It just latched on to me and I can't get it off."

"So that goofy watch is what made you change?" asked Ryoga.

"Yes Ryoga, this thing I'm wearing is what I'm pretty sure is what made me change into that crystal….what do we call it anyway?" asked Ranma.

"I dunno," Ryoga shrugged. "It looked kind of he was made of crystal. Your head was kind of noticeable though. Not many people have spikes coming out of their heads"

"You think so?" Ranma wondered. "Hey, why don't we call it Diamondhead then? Just for fun?"

"I guess," Ryoga shrugged. "It probably has some kind of name we can't pronounce anyway."

"What makes you think that?" asked Ranma. "I mean, it's just some kind of diamond skinned guy isn't it?"

"Looked kind of like an alien to me," Ryoga shrugged. "I met a bunch of little gray guys with big heads down in a place called Roswell. I think its south of Nerima. Anyway, they were pretty ticked that they couldn't figure out my direction problem. They kept mentioning things like generating portals and stuff. They were pretty mad at me for ending up in their ship. Not sure how I missed it though."

"Your point?" Ranma sighed.

"Diamondhead sure looked like an alien to me," Ryoga answered.

Ranma shrugged. It didn't really bother him that he turned into an alien. It was a pretty cool alien in his opinion. Being able to grow crystals and the feeling of strength in Diamonhead's muscles gave him an adrenaline, or whatever Diamondhead used for that sort of thing, rush. Being able to change back into a human was a pretty good thing in comparison though. He was a little confused as to just why he had changed back in the first place. He hadn't even touched the symbol over his heart while he was in Diamondhead's body. What had made him change back?

Since Ranma was back to normal, both martial artists decided that they could use something to eat. Ranma decided it was time to get something to eat and Ryoga could be somewhere for a single night. Besides, he wasn't about to a chance to be with Akane as himself rather than her pet P-chan.

The two boys managed to get back to the Tendo Dojo without major incident. None of the fiancés were around and the remaining rivals were probably turning in for the afternoon.

**Outer Space**

Aboard his ship, the sinister tentacle-faced alien received a report from one his drones, telling him that they had just detected the Omnitrix's energy signature. He would've gone but his body had sustained some internal injuries and from his first attempt at retrieving the Omnitirx and would need to be treated. However, why do something yourself when you can send others to do it for you?

He commanded the drones to send several attack drones to the planet and retrieve the Omnitrix and take care of anything that got in its way.

**Back In Nerima**

On their way to the Tendo Dojo, Ryoga just stared as Ranma toyed around with the alien watch. It had returned to being green some time ago and Ranma decided that since it looked okay, it was time to experiment. "Hey, check this out!" Ranma said as he twisted the face of the watch around a few times. The face had popped up and instead of pushing it down, he started to twist it around. "I bet I can change into these things too!" On the face of the watch was a silhouette of an alien being, which would switch each time Ranma twisted it. "Oh, man, this is so cool!"

"I don't think you should be playing with that thing," Ryoga warned. Who know what else Ranma would turn into next? Ranma was acting like he'd gotten a gift from Santa for Christmas or a kid who got a cool toy for his birthday.

"Oh, come on, what's the worst that can happen?" Ranma asked.

SPLASH!

He had to ask.

"Oh, man! Not this time too!" Ranma-chan shouted as she tried to dry out her clothes. A car had just sped by and splashed her with a puddle. Ryoga had quickly used his umbrella to shield himself from the water. Of course Ranma might have been able to dodge it if she hadn't been so focused on the device on her arm.

Ranma-chan then checked the watch. "Oh, I sure hope this thing didn't get damaged." Of course, she just had to press down on the face. Ryoga shielded his eyes from the green flash of light and when the glow died down, he opened his eyes….and proceeded to get a huge nosebleed.

Whatever alien Ranma-chan had turned into, was sure gorgeous! She had pale violet skin and sensual curves. Her torso was wrapped in a dark blue leotard that had the symbol on the watch right underneath her breasts. Her smooth arms and legs were clad in black arm gloves and thigh-high boots. She had deep black hair cascading down her back and her face was rather attractive. However, her eyes were completely black and there was a pair of strange bat-like wings coming out of her back. There were a long pair of fangs revealed under her full lips and she looked VERY upset.

Of course, Ryoga's attention was trapped on her impressive breasts and the visible cleavage that her outfit afforded.

"Don't even say a word," Ranma-chan growled as she began dragging Ryoga along. Ryoga was trying not to speak since he would burst out into another nosebleed if he stopped concentrating on other things besides Ranma's alien female chest.

Unfortunately, peace was not to be hers. As she was walking down the street, men were making all sots of catcalls and offering dates. They didn't seem to mind that she had wings and looked like something out of a horror movie. They were either turned on by that or assumed her to be in cosplay. Ryoga didn't get by unscathed either since people were asking if he knew her or of she was single.

Their walk continued until they reached a site being cornered off by the electric company. A wire had come loose and the building had been shut off for the moment. As Ranma and Ryoga came closer, the female alien began hearing noises coming from the wires. Delicious sounds.

As if in a trance, Ranma-chan let go of Ryoga and walked through the barriers. She sauntered right up to the hanging cable, unheeding of the cries of people and the hydro workers who were coming back from a break. She reached up and took the cable into her hands. Despite the power being turned off, there was still plenty of energy sitting idle in the cable components.

"Yum," Ranma-chan smiled before she opened her mouth and dug her fangs into the wire. Electric voltage immediately began running through her teeth and into her body. Instead of feeling pain or discomfort, Ranma almost purred in satisfaction as she took in the voltage. After a short time of this, she took the cable out and began walking towards the amazed and clapping crowd. They had actually assumed that they were witnessing a show.

"W-w-why did you do that?" Ryoga asked, trying desperately not to stare at her breasts.

"I was hungry," Ranma-chan shrugged. "Why?"

"You just sucked electricity out of that cable!" Ryoga cried out.

"I did?" Ranma-chan blinked. Her eyes then widened in shock as the event and the ramifications came back to her. "Woah! I did! I'm not hungry anymore either!"

A beeping noise caught the boy's attention and they saw that the symbol below her chest was glowing red again. In another flash of red light, Ranma-chan had changed back to her normal human female self. Ryoga silently let out a sigh of relief. No more provocative outfit for him. No nosebleed!

"So what does it feel like?" Ryoga asked. "Changing like that, I mean."

"Weird," Ranma-chan sighed as she gazed at the now red watch with a frown. "The change itself is fast, but you can feel it happening. When I'm one of those aliens, I'm still me, but it doesn't feel like me."

"What are you talking about?" Ryoga asked in confusion. Since when did Ranma ever try to talk about deep things? He then handed a thermos to Ranma-chan. Luckily for her, the water inside was still warm so she splashed the water onto herself, changing her back to male Ranma.

"When I was Diamondhead, making spikes and stuff suddenly became second nature to me after the first few times," Ranma explained. "Then with Seductress, I somehow knew that I could drain the electricity out of that cable."

"Seductress?" Ryoga wondered. That was then the idea hit him. "Oh! That lady form you were in a minute ago!"

"Yeah," Ranma nodded. "You think I was in a female alien form because I was female when I changed?"

"Probably," Ryoga shrugged. "Makes sense when I think about it. Wonder what a male version would look like? You know, it's like you have two sets of aliens for every one you can change into."

"Kind of a hassle," Ranma grumbled.

"So are you going to tell the others?" asked Ryoga.

"No way!" Ranma cried out. "Nabiki would see this to some government in a heartbeat! The Amazons would want me even more for the power this thing possessed and the other rivals might want to pry it off for themselves. Come to think of it, Pop might try to pry it off just to sell it."

"But you said you can't get it off," Ryoga spoke up. 

"Yeah," Ranma nodded. "Of course the others would probably say I'm not doing it right and try anyway."

Ryoga didn't like to admit it, but Ranma was right. He would give almost anything to have the thing Ranma was now in possession of. Mousse and any other rivals that might pop up would do anything they could to get it if they knew what it could do. The Amazons would try to turn him into an obedient soldier or just try to see if blood relations could remove it with a blood relation. Nabiki and Genma would definitely try to sell it if they could get it off.

"That's why I need you to promise on your honor to never tell anyone about this thing and what it can do," Ranma frowned as he stared at Ryoga.

Ryoga nodded quickly. He may not have been on the best terms with him, but when Ranma got serious about something then it was best to get out of the way. Herb and Saffron learned that the hard way.

"But how are you gonna hide it?" Ryoga wondered out loud. The thing was huge!

Ranma sweatdropped. "Um…I haven't thought of that part yet."

Both boys finally made it back to the dojo without incident. They were only slowed down when Ranma stopped at Tofu's clinic for some hot water. Ranma had rolled down his usually rolled up sleeves and they seemed to do a decent job of covering the watch. It had changed back to green while they were walking so he took care not to press any buttons on it lest he accidentally transform into another alien. That would not go down well with the Tendos and his father.

"Tadaima," Ranma called as he stepped through the door. "Brought Ryoga with me."

"Hello Ranma," Kasumi called from the kitchen. She walked out to see the pigtailed boy and his friend. "It is good to have you home. I thought you would be home in a few days though."

"A meteor smashed my stuff," Ranma shrugged. "Had to come back."

"Oh my! How unlucky," Kasumi gasped. "Well, I'm glad that you're safe. I have plenty for dinner tonight so both you and Ryoga can have your fill."

"Thanks Kasumi," Ranma smiled. He then dragged Ryoga into the dining room where the rest of the Tendo family and his father were getting ready for dinner.

"Boy!" Genma snapped. "How dare you just up and leave and not take your kind and gentle fiancée with you!"

"DON"T YOU CARE ABOUT MY LITTLE GIRL!" Soun bellowed in his demon head form.

Ranma did not want to deal with this at the moment. He had just discovered that he could turn into different kinds of aliens and had done so twice that morning. He was stressed enough from the first time and the second time had ticked him off. He had enough stress for the day and he didn't want to have to deal with the father's whining about the schools that day.

"I was on a training trip," Ranma sighed. "I just wanted some peace and quiet along with some time to myself. Is that too much to ask for?"

"You're a regular chaos magnet, Saotome," Nabiki snickered. "Peace and quiet is a foreign concept for you."

"Well I had it before I came back," Ranma muttered.

Akane was not going on another spiel about Ranma being perverted since she knew he was alone on the training trip. His letter saying what he was doing had mentioned that he was alone. Well, that and the other fiancées coming over that morning to see where Ranma was since they couldn't find him. Since the days of Jusendo, Akane had been a little more inclined to trust Ranma at least a little. He did risk his life for her.

"Hello, Ryoga," she smiled brightly as she spied her other houseguest. "It's been a while since we saw you. How have you been?"

"O-oh, I-I've been around," Ryoga stuttered in response. His nervousness around Akane going into overdrive instantly.

Ranma shook his head as he headed for the table. Some things would never change when they had the chance to stay the same. Ryoga was probably never going to change since he was torn up between Akane and Akari. It was a little Kuno-like how he couldn't decide between the two of them, but then again, he had zero experience with women so he had no idea what to do. Kuno, on the other hand, just convinced himself that every woman wanted him and that it was perfectly okay to have both. 

With Ryoga mooning over Akane and the fathers distracted by dinner, Ranma sat himself down and began to eat. He secretly hoped that he could get some peace for the night and that no one would notice his newest acquisition. He had enough problems with it as it was without having everyone trying to take it from him.

Ranma ate his dinner at light speed, dodging his father's greedy hands and making sure that nothing was left on his plate. He kept his hands going at a rapid pace so that no one would be able to notice the odd bulge that was hidden underneath his sleeve. People really weren't that observant unless it was about something they wanted to pay attention to, but Nabiki paid attention to everything in case she could make money off of it.

"I'm done," Ranma announced as he stood up. "Thanks, Kasumi."

Without even waiting for a reply, Ranma got his plates and headed out for the kitchen to deposit them. He was going to take every opportunity he could to keep his new gadget hidden underneath his shirt.

After getting rid of his dishes, he went straight upstairs to his room. He wasn't going to stick around though. His room was one of the last places he could get some privacy. Especially with the way his father would sneak in and out to either steal from him or attack him in his sleep. Ranma only went to his room for the easy access he had to the roof.

He flipped up onto the roof and quickly went to his usual thinking spot. Usually when he looked up into space, he found the space nice and peaceful. After finding that alien watch, he realized that space wasn't as empty as he thought. That concerned him a little, but it also gave him hope. Maybe somewhere out there, there were people that he could actually become friends with without having to fight them over little things or petty jealousy. Knowing that he might actually have friends out there in space made Ranma feel a little more at peace.

"Maybe you're a gift from those aliens that want me to understand them better," Ranma said to the strange alien watch. "I keep hearing people saying 'walking a mile in someone else's shoes', maybe this is what it meant." Ranma was not usually someone would perceive as deep and philosophical, but then again he never had many chances to just sit there and think. He was usually always attacked at some point and lost his train of thought to focus on the fight.

He sighed.

A flash of movement.

Ranma could see something leaping from roof to roof. It was a small gnomish thing carrying a large bundle. From what Ranma knew, only one person would be doing such a thing.

Happosai.

True, the perverted grandmaster of Anything Goes was a pervert, but he was still grandmaster for a reason. No matter how old he was, he could still give the young a run for their money. That, and because Happosai would often cheat to get his way.

Ranma looked down on the watch and then pressed a button. The face popped up.

"Well, they did say that turnabout was fair play," Ranma smiled before twisting the face around to the silhouette of the alien he wanted to become. Smiling as he found it, he then slammed his palm down on the face.

There was a bright green flash as Ranma felt the change overtake him.

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"What a haul! What a haul!" Happosai laughed as he leapt from roof to roof for his ill gotten gains. Now, the only thing that would make this night perfect would be burying his face into the ample bosom of a lithe beauty.

Suddenly, Happosai felt odd. The weight of the bundle was…wait! Where was the bundle! It had vanished out of thin air.

"Looking for this?" Happosai heard a raspy voice and then he looked to see who had dared to get in the way of his fun and his eyes widened.

It was a demon!

The demon was dressed in a skintight black suit with a blue stripe running down its centre, a strange symbol in the centre of its waist to create the impression of a belt, a long black helmet covered head, long and skinny arms and legs. It had sharp scissor-like claws and wheels for feet. It also had a long and thick tail. The helmet it wore also covered its face and had a glowing blue' X' shaped visor. The visor then slid open, revealing a blue face with green eyes. The 'demon' looked almost like a reptile. In one of its claws, was Happosai's bundle.

"Return that to me, demon!" Happosaid demanded.

"The name's Velocity, old man," the 'demon' spoke. A smirk was adorning its reptilian lips as it gazed at the shriveled pervert. "What's an old guy like you doing with these anyway? Doubt they'd fit you."

"They're mine! I earned them!" Happosai roared. He reached into his gi and pulled out several round bombs. "HAPPO-FIRE BURST!"

The old pervert hurled the bombs at an impressive speed. Velocity just smirked before he began moving again. He looked like a barely visible blur of blue and black. Happosai would have gasped, but the reptilian creature was already in his face. Its visor retracted to reveal its smirking face. The blue-scaled face only looked more intimidating when the bombs went off and left a shadow across his features.

"Too slow, old man," he laughed.

"Arrrgh!" Happosai bellowed as he leaped away. Velocity smirked at the old man's anger. The old guy was probably so used to being so much better than anyone else that he never even considered the fact that there were others better than him.

"I will have them back!" Happosai roared as he prepared to pull out more bombs.

"Oh please," Velocity snickered before he started running again. Happosai had just grabbed the bombs when he felt something behind him. He turned around to see what just before he got a blue tail slamming into his face.

Happosai was sent sailing down before he crashed into the street. He had hit the ground so hard he actually managed to break the road. It was nothing serious to him since he was very much used to pain, but it didn't mean that he liked being treated that way.

"You vile blue demon!" the old lecher cursed. "Do you know who I am!"

"You're an old pervert who doesn't know the meaning of the words fair play," a hissing voice answered. Happosai turned around to see Velocity leaning against a lamppost with the sack of underwear at his feet. "You also have a bad temper and throw a tantrum the minute something you don't like happens. Most of all, you abuse your skills for petty reasons just because you want something."

Velocity's smirk just made Happosai even angrier. No one spoke to him that way! Not even his heir! He was about to get up and teach this blue creature a lesson when something happened that made his blood run cold.

"There he is!" an angry female cried. "There's the guy that took our underwear!"

"Heh," Velocity smirked. "It looks like your fan club is here. As much as I'd like to see your wrinkled old butt get kicked, I have better things to do with my time."

With that, Velocity ran off again, leaving Happosai in the middle of a small crater with a mob of angry women bearing down on him.

"Mommy," he gulped.

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Velocity sped down the streets until he reached the Tendo Dojo and actually ran up the wall before climbing up onto the roof. As he got his balled feet down on the shingles, the icon on his waist began to blink red. Suddenly, his entire body was bathed in red light that shone brightly for a few seconds before vanishing. In Velocty's place was Ranma Saotome. 

And he was laughing like a crazy man.

"Oh man that was awesome!" he laughed out loud. "The look on the old perv's face was priceless. I can't wait for him to get back here!"

And come home Happosai did. He was bloody and bruised with a big line-shaped bruise across his face. He was also using a stick to help himself move along.

"Master!" Soun cried. "What happened!"

"A cursed blue demon!" Happosai spat. "He ruined my fun! First he stole my silky darlings, then he left me to those pretty girls, and he finally had the nerve to return the darlings. Doesn't that fool have any idea what they are worth!" 

"A demon that actually stopped you from doing bad things?" Nabiki asked. "You sure he was a demon?"

"Positive!" Happosai barked. "There was no mistaking it! There was no way that thing could be human."

Of course, Ranma heard the whole thing. It was positively priceless for him. It was all he could do to not burst out laughing and reveal himself. As far as he was concerned, the old perv got only a piece of what he really deserved.

"Hey, Ranma," Ranma heard Ryoga's voice as the Lost Boy climbed onto the roof. "So, I heard Happosai talking about a demon. Are you that demon?"

"Well, if you're talking about a 'speed demon', then yeah," Ranma grinned. Ryoga shook his head.

"I think you should knock it off with that thing," Ryoga advised. Ranma blinked at him in confusion. "What?"

"Was that actual friendly advice from Ryoga "Prepare to Die" Hibiki?" Ranma asked. It wasn't a joke. He was just making a careful observation. This wasn't sounding like Ryoga at all.

Ryoga sat down, calmly next to Ranma, which was a first for him. "Ranma, that thing is an alien device. Who knows what's looking for it. You should really be careful about how you use it."

"Ryoga, this thing actual gives me the freedom to be anyone and anything I want. I can do anything and no one would even know it's me."

Ryoga said, "You're starting to sound like Happosai."

Ranma froze. "What?"

"If you abuse that watch's power, you'll be no better than him. It's like using a shortcut and I thought that the 'great' Ranma Saotome would hate using shortcuts."

"So, what do you think I should do with this thing?" Ranma asked, referring to the watch. The power was intoxicating, but the lost boy did have a point. If he did start abusing the power, then how was he different from Happosai abusing the skills he had gained?

"Use it when absolutely necessary," Ryoga said. "When I finally beat you, I want to beat Ranma Saotome the human. Not the alien."

Ranma looked at the ground and then back to the watch. He knew it was powerful and he knew that it could help him. Still, he had to make sure he wouldn't abuse it. He definitely had to make sure it was only used when necessary.

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From the vastness of space, a red spear-like object began shooting towards the blue planet. It had received its orders and was going to make sure that they were followed or die trying.

Preferably others would die while it tried.

The object had been scanning the landmasses on the planet ahead. It was searching for energy signatures which it had been programmed to look for. If its target was on the approaching planet, then it would be found.

Nothing could stop it now.

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"ACHOO!" Ranma sneezed. 

Wiping his nose, the pigtailed boy tried to feign interest in the lesson that the teacher was going through. He had discovered that if he looked like he was paying attention then the teachers wouldn't throw things at him. Even though he was looking like he was paying attention, his mind was miles away.

His mind was currently on the watch which was underneath his sleeve. During the night, he had decided to put it through its paces to see what it could do. He managed to transform into the aliens that he had available, which amounted to a total of ten. He had even though up of names for all of them for quick reference. Each body had their own strengths and weaknesses that both excited and angered him. Some bodies were so weak he didn't know what to do and he still couldn't figure out what they were good for. 

'_I have to wonder though,_' Ranma pondered. '_What kind of world would produce an alien like Hacker?_'

Ranma had been thinking about the different species that he had been in possession of at the moment. He had also wondered if he could change into more aliens than just the ten that he had found on the watch. Maybe they were locked away. Maybe there were only ten other alien species in the universe. Ranma wasn't sure, but he was definitely curious enough to try and find out. Maybe he could meet more aliens someday.

Ranma's eyes were gazing blankly outside where they saw something that he was rather familiar with; a flaming object coming from the sky. At first Ranma thought he was seeing things, but after blinking several times, he realized that he wasn't seeing things. It was another flaming meteor. Like last time, this one was coming right at the school.

"Hey everyone!" a girl in glasses shouted to everyone. "There's meteor in the sky!"

As the class began to get excited, Ranma couldn't help but begin to feel something bad coming into his gut.

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The drone had managed to find the signal of the Omnitrix on the eastern side of the planet. It had landed on one of the islands at the easternmost point. From what it had scanned about the natives, it would not receive much trouble from them. The only variable was if someone had gotten it or not. An even bigger variable was what kinds of life forms that native would have access to if they figured out how to make the Omnitrix work.

As it sped closer, the droid decided that it would capture the target with EXTREME prejudice if a native had found it.

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As the object crashed in the centre of the schoolyard, a large crater was formed. Luckily, nobody was injured by it. It was still smoking and it didn't appear to have been damaged by the impact that it made when it had arrived. Everyone had run to the windows to see what had made the loud noise and what had hit the ground so hard.

"Oh, man," Ranma gulped. He did not like the look of that thing. "What now?"

"It's a freakin UFO!" Daisuke shouted out. 

"Just like that movie!" Hiroshi added. "You think they're little green men?"

Ranma watched the object beginning to move and felt a feeling of dread. His hand went over the watch for a second. Whatever this thing was, it hadn't arrived out of coincidence. Not after just finding the watch that he had come to treasure.

The object shuddered before it suddenly started to transform. A pair of legs folded out from under it as its main body rose up and folded forwards, allowing a pair of lone arms with sharp claw-like fingers to slide out. Its head then shriveled around, looking at the awestruck students.

Then, it attacked.

BOOM!

A portion of the school building exploded as a red beam was fired from the robot's eyes. Smoke and debris littered the air as the beams made impact against the school.

Then, chaos ensued.

Students began to scream and run for their lives. Smart move. That made too many moving targets for this robot to shoot. It didn't know which of the alien organisms had what it had been programmed to find. Shooting wildly might destroy its target. The students didn't realize that they were safe by running. However, someone just had to play hero.

Someone with little sense of reality.

Come on down, Tatewaki Kuno.

"Be still, my fellow pupils, for I, the Blue Thunder, shall slay this demon that has fallen from the heavens!" He gripped his bokken. "Be ready, my opponent, and be slain!" He let out a battlecry and charged straight at the 15 foot tall robot. Kuno could never be called cowardly, but he definitely couldn't be called intelligent either.

"Kuno, you idiot!" Ranma yelled as he chased after Kuno. Despite not liking the guy, even Ranma couldn't allow the idiot to get killed by his own idiocy.

The robot got sensor readings telling that something was hitting its leg. It looked down as Kuno started to slash at the robot with his bokken. "Take that! And that! And that!" Kuno chanted as he attempted to 'banish this demon'. 

ZAP!

And then Kuno's bokken got incinerated and he stood there, shocked, jaw wide open and for the first time in his life was Kuno truly afraid. He looked up to see the robot raise up its foot to stomp him flat but then Ranma pushed him out of the way.

"Saotome?" Kuno wondered.

"Are you crazy?" Ranma shouted. He already knew the answer to that. "Or just an idiot? That thing is a robot hell-bent on killing us all! You think you can handle it! Get to safety like the others!" He then heard another loud battlecry. "Now what?"

"My fair tigress!" Kuno shouted out as Akane ran at the robot with her mallet raised.

"I'm surrounded by morons," Ranma sighed. Sure Akane could be headstrong at times, but he never thought she'd be dumb enough to try and fight a huge robot with only her mallet and anger. He was of course proven wrong. She'd be killed!

Ranma ran for someplace else so that no one would see him change or else they'd be a lot of questioning. Kuno had been too focused on the robot to even notice Ranma had gone.

"I've got no choice," Ranma said with a frown as he hid behind the building and looked to his special device. He tapped the green button and let the circle come up. Gripping it, he began cycling through the different images until he landed on the one that he wanted.

"Almost wrecked the dojo with this one," Ranma commented as he lay his hand on the circle. "Better hope it works!"

Ranma pressed down on the circle and let the green light flash, signaling his change. A bark-like substance ran up his arm and his entire body began to grow. His height increased at a dramatic rate. Leaf-like protrusions began to grow from his head and back while his arms began to grow longer.

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"Hyyyyaaaaaaaahhh!" Akane cried as she pounded away at the robot's shell. Sure Kuno wasn't able to beat it but he wasn't really able to do anything right. She had taken one look at the machine and decided that it was only good for shooting things and being scary. She could take it down easy.

If only that were true.

Her mallet collided with loud ringing sounds. Her weapon was proving ineffective. It didn't seem to stop her as she continued wailing away at it. The large machine just nudged her to knock her off her feet before raising a leg to crush her. She obviously did not have what it was looking for.

"Hey, rustbucket!" a deep voice boomed through the air. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

At the opposite corner of the school, a large alien was standing tall and proud. It was roughly the same height as the robot, give or take a few inches. It looked like it had tan-colored bark for skin. Its feet had no toes and looked like tree trunks. Its arms were long and could have scrapped across the ground if they weren't raised and clenched into fists. Some cloth-like material stretched across its chest in an X pattern with blue in the centre and black lining. A symbol of some kind was in the centre of the X. The head of the creature was partially covered with green foliage along with its back and shoulders. Its mouth didn't look like it had teeth, just jagged spikes of wood. It was one of the ten alien forms Ranma had access to. Because it had so much potential in destroying stuff and looked like it was a tree, he had named it Deforrester.

The robot didn't seem to be intimidated or even concerned about this new arrival. However, its scanners had homed in on the symbol on the centre of its chest. If it could show surprise, the robot would have shown every form of it. It completely ignored Akane in favor of the alien. It then began walking towards the opposing alien with the intent on taking it down.

"You don't know who you're messing with!" Deforrester smirked as he raised his arms higher.

The robot raised its own arms as it braced itself to fire, but Deforrester managed to beat it to the punch, literally. A large wood-like first smashed across the robots face and sent it sprawling to the dirt with a large crash.

Like a lot of the students, Nabiki was watching with eyes wide. Though she was awed at first, the gears in her mind were turning. Think of the money she could make out of. She then whipped out her camera and zoomed in on the alien brawl, trying to find a good angle to shoot from and take as many pictures she could find. This was practically a goldmine here!

Deforrester had gotten a little used to his alien forms and their abilities. The large tree-like alien discovered that he could actually keep its hold on the ground by literally rooting itself to the ground. Of course, Deforrester had to go on the offensive to take care of this alien robot. Grabbing the robot by the head, he threw it over his shoulder in a standard judo toss behind him. The robot skidded across the ground. Deforrester didn't try to go for showboating like he would in his human form. He had learned during his experimenting that he had very limited time. After the first three times he'd learnt that the watch would time out as it flashed red, signaling him changing back to human form. Unless he wanted to fight this alien robot as a human, he had to end this quick.

The robot struggled to get back onto its feet, but as it looked up it was faced with a large foot hanging over its head. Deforrester just smirked before he let his foot fall and stomp the robots head to the ground. At the same time, Deforrester had placed his palm onto the ground, allowing brown vines to wrap around the struggling robot. With a sense of finality, solid wooden spikes impaled the robot before it stopped moving. Electric bolts ran through the mess of metal and robot, forcing Deforrester to remove his roots from it so to keep from catching fire. The robot convulsed soundly before it exploded, incinerating a majority of the steel and leaving only shrapnel.

Deforrester smiled as he stared down at his defeated opponent. Not bad for his first fight against a robot. As he was admiring his handiwork, he heard a beeping sound, signaling that he was about to time out. Acting quickly, he spun his body around and began digging a hole for himself to use to escape. He did not want to transform back to normal in front of everyone. That would just make everyone try to get him for the device strapped to his wrist.

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Ranma later punched his way out of the ground before digging himself out, covered in dirt from his escape. "Stupid watch," Ranma muttered. Why did it have to run out on him as he was digging his way out of trouble? Dusting off his clothes, he decided to see if everything was okay. He quickly discovered that he was at the soccer field. No one was around either. Everyone else was too busy running away or trying to get pictures for Nabiki.

He walked towards the smoking school and managed to walk around the side. A lot of the students were just milling around and staring at the flaming wreck. A lot of them were talking or even standing around the hole he had made as Deforrester.

Nabiki and her goon squad could be seen racing between the other students, trying to get testimony or pictures that had been taken. It seemed that Nabiki was determined to milk as much money as she possibly could out of the fight.

What made Ranma really smile was that no one was the wiser that he had been the one who had trashed the robot. Still, something had been bothering him. When it had seen him, it stared at the mark on his chest and suddenly it was about to hit him with everything it had. Thankfully Ranma had been able to get to him first. Still, that robot obviously knew what the watch was.

The question was, who sent it?

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From within his healing chamber, where also modifications were being made on his body, the tentacle-faced alien let out a roar of rage that caused the area of the ship to quake.

"The Omnitrix…it should be mine and a simple earther is able to use it to defeat one of my own drones? UNACCEPTABLE!" the alien roared. "It should be on my body and I will make sure that this earther, whoever it is, will pay for crossing VILGAX!"

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Later that night…

Happosai was hopping across the rooftops in an effort to replenish his supplies of 'soft, silky darlings' that the blue speed demon had managed to get from him. This time, of course, Happosai was prepared. No demon was going to have the drop on him.

He then felt it; a strange ki that seemed to follow him around. Of course, he looked over his shoulder and saw nothing. After a few minutes of trying to find the source of the strange ki, he shrugged it off and then continued on his way.

What he didn't know was that his pursuer was invisible. It would wait for the right time to freak the old geezer out. He had gone on another raid and left a lot of angry and upset women chasing him. Apparently it was time for another lesson.

Happosai continued his dashing before he decided he had gotten far enough stopped to rest for a bit. He was so relaxed he had even brought out some tea. No interruptions and the speed demon had not appeared. Maybe it was thinking twice before messing with the Grandmaster. As it should since no one should mess with the Grandmaster of Anything Goes.

He then felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around.

"Boo!" 

Happosai let out a scream before running away, shrieking. The old pervert had seen a lot of weird and wonderful things in his life, but ghosts were something one never messed with.

The creature that had frightened him had long skinny arms with 4 fingers and a grey body with no legs and resembled a ghost, or at least what a ghost would look like if it was a normal person wearing a grey bed sheet. There was a single purple eye and the body had black lines all over it. Oddly enough, its mouth was higher up than its eye. The symbol of a familiar watch was also trapped within the tracks. The creature was also laughing.

It was really Ranma, in the form of the ghostly alien he'd dubbed as Spectre.

Spectre let out an echoing laughter, "Man, the look on his face!" He would've bust a gut if he had any in his current form. He looked to the bundle that Happosai had left behind in his scramble to get away. It figured. The little runt would leave anything behind to save his skin. With nothing else to do, he grabbed the bundle and headed back to return it.

Spectre silently thought that things were changing pretty quickly. If it was for better or worse was yet to be seen. 


	5. Chronicles of TimeBlack

I do not own Mirai Sentai Timeranger nor do I own Ranma ½

I do not own Mirai Sentai Timeranger nor do I own Ranma ½. I am only writing about them for fun and entertainment. I am making no money off of this story and I have no intention of doing so. I am just writing this so people can read and enjoy.

Chronicles of TimeBlack

By Ten-Faced Paladin

Chapter 1: Londers Family vs. Wrecking Crew

Out in the city of greater Tokyo, there is a building where group of entrepreneurs offer their services for a number of tasks for an agreed-upon price. They have a history of satisfied customers and recommendations behind them. There are five main employees who are also the founders of their business. To the majority of Tokyo, these five are known as Tomorrow Research, for when you need a job done. However, there is a side to these five that almost no one knows. In secret, the five people who run Tomorrow Research are also defenders of the public as the task force known as the Timerangers.

Inside the main headquarters/living space, the five Timerangers were enjoying some of the rare time they got off between jobs and their duty as the Timerangers.

Sitting in the living room area was a man wearing an orange jacket, camo pants, and a white cap. He looked like someone who was in his mid-twenties. His name was Domon and he was in secret, TimeYellow. He was a seasoned fighter in boxing and other grappling fighting. He was also something of a womanizer who was always attracted to a pretty face. He worked as a self-defense instructor at Tomorrow Research, but never really had any students show up yet.

Sitting in his own chair next to Domon was a man who looked close to the same age. He had chin-length hair and was wearing a black leather jacket over a blue shirt with black jeans. His name was Ayase and he was secretly the member of the Timerangers known as TimeBlue. Ayase worked as a professional driver and had his own passion for cars that was unique for him. He was a generally serious individual and wouldn't hesitate to get any task given to him finished.

At another side of the room, there was younger boy sitting at a computer, typing away with commands. His hair was a pale blue since he dyed it that color and he was wearing a green shirt over a long-sleeved blue one with white shorts. This boy's name was Sion. He was the youngest of the five rangers, known as TimeGreen. He was a young expert with technology and was the computer help in Tomorrow Research. An interesting note is that he was an extraterrestrial from a place called Hummard, a planet destroyed in a war, meaning he was the last of his species. Still, he didn't let it get him down since he enjoyed the time he spent with his friends.

The single desk in the room was playing host to the lone female of the group. She had shoulder length brown hair and was wearing a brown leather jacket and skirt with a pink shirt underneath her jacket. Her name was Yuuri and she was the general leader of the team known as TimePink. She was a generally cold person, but she was slowly becoming warmer. She was the resident detective for Tomorrow Research and offered her services in obtaining information for clients.

The last member of the group was just coming out of the men's bedroom. He was wearing a simple pair of jeans and a red plaid shirt. He looked to be the same age as the older members inn the room and had short dark hair. His name was Tatsuya Asami and he was the field commander of the Timerangers, TimeRed. Tatsuya was the one who rented the building for himself and his friends since he was the heir to the Asami Corporation and had a lot of funds in his savings. He taught martial arts classes in a dojo on the ground floor and was a competent teacher of his style.

As a whole, the Timerangers were the only force which kept the alien criminals known as the Londers Family from taking over the world with their might and knowledge of the future. It should be noted at this point that the Londers Family, Domon, Ayase, Yuuri, Sion, and their technology came from the 30th century.

The Londers Family was led by a toad-like being named Don Dolnero along with his two members, the woman Lila, and the robotic scientist Gien. The three of them began their crime spree by breaking Dolnero from the Londers prison and pretending to go back in time. When the four rangers were about to go through the time gate to head to the past, the section of the prison Dolnero and his two minions vanished in reappeared in front of them, letting the time traveling ship launch the three criminals into the past, back to the year 2000

The Londers Family, in taking an entire section of a prison with them, brought a large cache of various criminals with them to help them achieve their goals of cash and conquering. In the 30th century, criminals were put in suspended animation and shrunk to a small size to maximize space and prisons. Ironically, this also gave Dolnero a small army of criminals to use at his beck and call.

When the four rangers arrived in the year 2000, their ship was destroyed by Lila, who was pretending to be the fifth member of the rangers. Now stranded, they attempted to go after Dolnero, but discovered that they needed five rangers to activate their Chrono-Changers, the device used to transform them into Timerangers. Since it was Tatsuya who had stumbled into them after their arrival, they conscripted him into the job of the fifth ranger.

There was one last resident in the room, but he wasn't exactly human. He was actually a small robotic owl who had accompanied the four time travelers from their home time. His name was Takku and he had a complete database on all the criminals that the Londers Family possessed, along with being capable of contacting the 30th century for help when some of the criminals the rangers fought got out of hand.

At the moment, Sion was looking over news reports for anything odd in case the Londers Family were getting up to their usual tricks again. They could sometimes be very sneaky and the criminals they had available could cover their tracks very well.

"Oi, Sion, what are you doing over there?" asked Domon curiously. "You've been on it all day."

"Oh, just seeing if the Londers are trying anything," the boy from another world answered absently as his concentration continued to be trained on the screen.

"That's good," Yuuri nodded from her documents. "We have to keep alert or else we might miss another Londers scheme."

Tatsuya shook his head tiredly before yawning, "You really need to learn how to relax. I mean, we just dealt with the Londers yesterday. I doubt they will be up to something so soon."

Tatsuya was referring to the incident with the Corrupted Medicine Doc. A criminal who was the medical droid gone bezerk. He would actually kill patients with unecessary surgury before giving out huge bills to the surviving members of the family. He had been discovered after he tried to do the same to Domon, who had amnesia at the time. The rangers were able to bring him out of it before defeating and re-freezing Doc.

"Dolnero's greed isn't something to take lightly," Yuuri argued sternly. "When he wants something, he will try to get it no matter what."

Sion clicked a few times on the computer before an article popped up which described some local news.

"That's odd," he frowned slightly. His words also caught the attention of the other rangers in the room.

"What is it?" asked Domon.

"Is it the Londers?" asked Ayase.

"I'm not sure," Sion answered as he continued to read the article. "It just says that a lot of buildings in a district called Nerima have been crumbling more than usual. No one is sure why it is happening, but experts are blaming materials used in recent construction and repairs."

"What makes you think Londers are involved then?" asked Yuuri.

"It's the fact that they can't seem to identify the material," Sion explained as he continued to read. "It's too fragile to get a proper analysis, but people who purchase the material could have sworn that it was the material they needed for the buildings or repairs."

"That does sound suspicious," Ayase agreed with Sion. "Does it say who is supplying this building material?"

"Ummm," Sion began as he kept reading. "No. The article says they can't reveal the supplier of this stuff since it can't be determined that it was their fault. People who use it say that it was pretty strong when they installed it, but it was destroyed later. The authorities are claiming it to be vandalism or something.

Tatsuya pondered what he was hearing before he turned to where Takku was resting on a perch, "Hey Takku, do you know of any criminals who might be involved in this."

Takku turned to look at his friends as he pondered the question, "Hmm. I think I might know. Hold on a second."

Flapping his wings and activating his boosters, Takku flew across the room towards the terminal where Sion was working. Next to the terminal was a station where Takku was able to interface with the system. This was the case as his metal talons attached to the computer equipment. As he did, the screen of the computer turned black before the database of Londers criminals came up and started scanning through the still free criminals with the parameters that Takku had selected.

After a few moments, the profile of one of the criminals came up. This one was covered with bulky silver armor which had the black and yellow strips which road signs used to slow motorists down. I-beams were sticking out of his shoulders and the only flesh visible was the head, which looked dark with no lips that revealed block-like teeth and small eyes. A white hard had was adorned on his head with small horns sticking out.

"Here we go," Takku frowned. "His name is Falsser. He was arrested for embezzlement, fraud, and negligent homicide. He used to be a contractor, but he used faulty materials which crumbled after a set amount of time. In 2912, a skyscraper he helped build collapsed and killed over 100 people. He was sentenced to 500 years in cryo-stasis."

"So you think he might have something to do with this?" asked Tatsuya.

"The M.O. is the same," Takku nodded. "A bunch of materials used in buildings appeared strong at first before crumbling after construction was finished. The only reason he was arrested was because when he was to be brought in for the homicide, he was caught making the faulty materials."

"That's all we need to know," Yuuri nodded. "We're going to head to Nerima and if the Londers are involved, we'll find them and stop them!"

"Right!" Domon agreed.

"Yeah!" Sion smiled.

"I'll drive," announced Ayase.

"Then let's go!" Tatsuya grinned.

The five Timerangers all got to their feet and scrambled outside of their home. Outside was a rental car they had paid for. Ayase was instantly in the driver's seat while Tatsuya got in the passenger side. This left Sion, Domon, and Yuuri piled into the backseat. Strapping himself in, Ayase put on the gas and soon the five secret heroes were off.

In the district otherwise known as Nerima, one of the residents was walking down the street. He wore silk Chinese clothes and had black hair which he kept done up in a pigtail. His name was Ranma Saotome and he was arguable the best martial artist of his generation.

Of course, it wasn't easy for him to get to where he was in terms of skill. When he was five years old, his father took him from his mother and put through ten years of intensive training by his father, Genma Saotome. He had suffered numerous injuries and countless insane means of training.

It should be noted that Genma Saotome was not the most sympathetic individual when it came to training his son. He never really played the role of 'father' beyond using it as a playing card to make his son do something. He always put Ranma through insane training methods because they were either known as legendary, unbeatable, or just brought maximum effect for minimum effort. Often, Genma would just watch as his son was put through hell for the sake of training. Sometimes his ideas didn't turn out as well as he hoped. Two prime examples were the Neko-ken and Jusenkyo. The Neko-ken was a supposedly unbeatable technique that involved tying the trainee up in fish sausages and throwing them into a pit of starving cats. Because of this, Ranma obtained a terrible fear of cats. Genma's second brainwave was Jusenkyo, a training ground filled with springs that were supposedly cursed. These curses were proven true when Genma obtained a curse which turned him into a panda when hit with cold water while Ranma himself turned into a busty red-headed girl.

It should be noted that Genma wasn't a very honest individual and was more than willing to break a few promises to get what he wanted, namely food or money. This led to Ranma being engaged without his knowledge for things as little as rice, fish, and pickles.

After the mess with Jusenkyo, Ranma and his father came back to Japan and straight to a place called the Tendo Dojo where he learned that he had a fiancée waiting for him. To make matters worse, the girls he would eventually have to choose between for a wife had no idea until the last minute about the engagement. The two fathers most likely did this to avoid protest from their children until it was too late to avoid it.

This was how Ranma found himself engaged to Akane Tendo, the only martial artist among the three sisters. Her older sisters shoved him off to their little sister since they didn't want him as a future spouse, which his curse may have played a role in that move.

Akane had a terrible temper for a martial artist and very little control over it, preferring to hit boys than to listen to them. This problem stemmed from the fact that she was attacked every morning by a horde of perverted boys who were under the impression that if they beat her in a fight, they could date her. What was worse, she and Ranma didn't get off on the right foot since she walked in on him in the bathroom and somehow figured it was his fault. The fathers didn't seem to pay attention to all of the fighting and shouting and deemed them to be a perfect couple.

Things didn't get much better in the Tendo household. Akane was a terrible cook who never seemed to realize what she was doing and when Ranma got sick from tasting the food, she would usually assume he was making fun of her and mallet him. Akane's older sister Nabiki would often use him as a means of obtaining money for the house by taking provocative pictures of his girl form, which the boys at school would buy up like candy.

Not everyone accepted the Tendo/Saotome agreement when they heard about it either. One such individual was Tatewaki Kuno, an upperclassman at the local high school who fancied himself a samurai warrior and the only one worthy of Akane. It was him who proclaimed that no one could date Akane unless they beat her in a fight. Since he was the strongest fighter in the school, no one could really argue with him. Kuno was later proven to be as fickle as he was arrogant when he fell in love with Ranma's girl form not believing in the curse and desiring both her and Akane, believing that Ranma's male half was keeping them away from him.

The second constant headache to Ranma was Ryoga Hibiki, a boy who had the world's worst sense of direction and had a bone to pick with Ranma. They met when Ranma was in Junior High and the pigtailed boy would beat him to the last piece of bread. Fed up with the losses, Ryoga challenged Ranma to a duel in an empty lot. Ranma was there, but Ryoga didn't show up. Three days later, Genma dragged Ranma off to China before Ryoga showed up on the forth day. Angered at this 'slight' on his honor, Ryoga followed Ranma to China where he was accidentally pushed off a cliff by Ranma's girl form and into the Spring of Drowned Pig. Now cursed to turn into a pig, Ryoga hunted after Ranma before finding him at the Tendo Dojo where his curse activated and Akane discovered him and made him into her pet. Despite knowing Ryoga was sleeping with his fiancée, he kept Ryoga's secret since he saw it as his fault that the lost boy was cursed.

Headache #3 came in the form of Kodachi Kuno. She was Kuno's little sister and a martial arts gymnast who didn't know the meaning of the words 'fair play.' They had met when Kodachi tried to incapacitate Akane who was going to be in an upcoming match against her and was knocked off the roof by Ranma who was chasing Ryoga to keep him from sleeping with Akane. When he saved her, Kodachi seemed to latch onto him and was obsessed with him ever since. She often liked to use poisons and such to try and have him hold still so she could kiss him or take him away. Like her brother, she assumed that the female Ranma was keeping the male Ranma away from her and never missed an opportunity to try and 'remove' the 'obstacle' to her love.

The next bunch of problems came from the Chinese Amazon Shampoo. She came from a village of Amazons that Ranma and Genma came across after they got cursed. The two martial artists came in the middle of a festival where Amazons fought each other for a victory feast. Of course, Ranma and Genma didn't know that and since they were starving, they took one look at the feats and began eating. Shampoo had been the victor and was angered by the outsiders who ate her feast. To make up for it, Ranma challenged her so if she won, the feast would be hers. Ranma had been victorious, but Shampoo was angry at the loss and gave her the Kiss of Death, which was Shampoo's promise to hunt Ranma down and kill her. The purple-haired Amazon followed Ranma all the way to Japan before she discovered that Ranma was in fact a boy. When they fought a second time, Shampoo lost and gave him the Kiss of Marriage, proclaiming Ranma as her husband. The Amazons had a strange set of laws where they had to kill outsider females who beat them, but marry outsider males who did the same. Shampoo returned to China for a brief time before coming back with her great-grandmother Cologne to help her claim Ranma. Shampoo was an aggressive girl who wasn't above using tricks to try and force Ranma to return to China with her. Despite her good looks, her attitude was a major turn-off. It only got crazier when she revealed her Jusenkyo curse which turned her into a cat, Ranma's worst nightmare.

Things got worse when Genma and Soun's old master Happosai came to town. The old man was a pervert to the extreme who loved to fondle girls and steal their underwear. He was so into it, he suffered from withdrawal when he couldn't do it for a while. He proclaimed Ranma his heir, despite the boy's protests otherwise, and was more or less the favorite plaything for the old pervert despite the number of kicks and pains he would receive. It should be noted that Happosai was incredibly petty and would throw tantrums when he couldn't get his way by attacking Ranma or summoning the odd demon. It never lasted long before Ranma managed to get away, but Happosai never seemed to go away and the fathers were no help since they were so cowardly and groveled in front of him all the time.

The situation reached a new peak when Ukyo Kuonji came to town. She had been friends with Ranma when they were little and were like all little kids. Of course, Ranma had thought that Ukyo was a boy with the way she dressed and fought. At one point, Genma and her father talked about an engagement with the Kuonji yattai as a dowry on the condition that Ukyo go with them. Of course, Genma had no intention of keeping the promise before he left Ukyo on the side of the road and ran with Ranma and the yattai. She trained for years after that before tracking the father and son pair down and attempted to bring retribution down on them. Of course, Ranma was shocked when he discovered that his best friend was in fact a girl and a second fiancée. Ranma managed to calm her down by calling her cute, but it only served to make her a determined fiancée.

Things continued in a pattern for the rest of the year. Shampoo, Kodachi, and Ukyo would continuously fight over him and try to bribe him with food. Akane would pound him, calling him a pervert while denying she had any feelings for him. Rivals like the myopic Amazon Mousse or the cross-dresser Tsubasa would attack him, believing that if he was out of the way, they girl they were after would jump into their arms. Happosai would throw a fit now and then while Nabiki would blackmail him or sell photos for cash. Pepper in the odd challenger or a plot from the fathers to force their children together come hell or high water and that was Ranma's usual day.

Things went up a notch when Nodoka Saotome, Ranma's mother, heard he was staying in Nerima and came to try and find her son. When Ranma was young, Genma had gotten him to sign a contract stating if Ranma was not a 'man among men' after the trip was over, both he and Genma would commit seppuku. Of course, with Ranma's curse, he didn't appear to be very manly. Add in Nodoka's expectations detailing someone who was casually intimate with women and was a complete pervert, Ranma was in trouble. So, when Nodoka came to visit, he would pretend to be the Tendo's cousin Ranko. Eventually the secret came out, but Nodoka found that Ranma filled her expectations. Of course, she still wanted grandchildren very badly and was always encouraging the marriage between Ranma and Akane.

Things finally came to a head when after a large battle in China, Genma and Soun decided they had waited long enough and made to push Ranma and Akane together once and for all. The Jusenkyo guide had sent a cask of Spring of Drowned Man water to the dojo in thanks for Ranma's help, which Soun hid so he could make Ranma marry his daughter. Of course, things fell apart quickly when Genma tried to steal the cask for himself and the fiancées (sold invitations by Nabiki) came crashing in with explosive food to try and stop the wedding with the rivals coming to get rid of Ranma once and for all. The worst blow was when Happosai drank the cask of Drowned Man water thinking it was wedding sake.

After the failed wedding and near destruction of the dojo, Nabiki had hired some new contractors to deal with the damage. They were highly recommended and had certificates up the wazoo. She couldn't see anything wrong so she hired them to come in and fix the damage. Ranma himself was uncomfortable with the workers coming through since he couldn't tell where they were. It was almost as if they didn't have an aura. He was certainly glad when they left.

Things seemed to continue in the dojo for a couple of days until when Akane was practicing in the dojo, the floor collapsed and holes appeared in the ceiling. In the end, the dojo looked even worse than it did before the job. Nabiki was furious that she had been swindled and deftly ordered Ranma to go 'talk' to them under threat of increased debt.

That led to why Ranma was walking down the street towards the building where the contractor had been working out of. It was better than staying at the dojo since Akane was mad she had gotten hurt and Nabiki was still fuming. Soun was crying over Akane, making it seem like she was dying while Genma was bemoaning how Ranma was so dishonorable that he wouldn't help his fiancée when she needed him. Kasumi, Akane's oldest sister and the happy homemaker, just tried to clean up some of the mess where she could.

"So where is this place?" Ranma grumbled as he looked around. Nabiki told him that there was a sign, but all the buildings looked the same to him.

Eyeing the address that Nabiki had hastily scrawled down, Ranma quickly managed to find the building in question. When he looked at it, it didn't look like any place that a contractor was working out of. In fact, it looked like it had been abandoned recently.

"Oh man," Ranma grumbled. "Looks like these guys are professionals. Nabiki is going to skin me alive."

Stepping closer to the building, Ranma tried to see if anyone was there or at least a clue about where they went. The door leading inside was firmly locked and there wasn't a single piece of furniture anywhere. Whoever these contractor guys were, they were just as quick to move out as they were to fix things, or at least look like they fixed things.

"Ow! Watch it you bucket of bolts!" an angry voice shouted from behind the building.

"Huh?" Ranma blinked. "What's that?"

Now curious, Ranma headed over behind the building. He was sure he had heard someone talking back there. Turning a corner in the direction of the voice, Ranma suddenly stiffened when he laid his eyes on what was going on.

In front of him was a large truck which was backed in towards the building, accepting loads. The cargo turned out to be large bundles of cash that were wrapped in plastic. Carrying those bundles of cash were weird humanoid things which had bronze-colored suits and metal heads that had one large optic in the middle. They moved in jerky motions, making them look like robots, which considering their appearance, wasn't too far of a stretch.

Near the back door of a building, was one of the oddest looking individuals that Ranma had ever seen. When one lived the life he had, that was saying something. This guy was covered in silver metal armor that had yellow and black stripes painted up and down the arms and legs. Sticking out of his shoulders was what looked like I-beams. It appeared to have a construction helmet on, but horns were sticking through it. The face itself had dark skin with no lips and block-like teeth. One thing that didn't seem to fit in with the appearance was a strange black and gold badge that was seemingly fused with his left forearm.

"Watch where you're going!" the strange guy growled as he struck a robot over the head with his fist. The man-shaped machine crumpled instantly and fell over. "Next time look out before stepping on my foot!"

The strange robot struggled to its feet and hobbled off to gather more bundles of money. Ranma just watched it go as it suddenly dawned on him what was going on. These guys were probably behind the construction scam and were coming to get the money that they had gotten from their deals. Now his only problem was what he was going to do about it. The local police really weren't much help. They never showed up when one of the Wrecking Crew started tearing up the district in one of their fits so getting them to help against a bunch of robots and a guy who looked like a construction worker from hell probably wouldn't happen.

While Ranma was scoping out the place, one of the robots that had deposited a bundle of cash was coming off of the truck. It was looking straight forward, but its creator Gien was a stickler for detail, which meant his machines ran at peak performance. Because of this, the robot had spotted Ranma, who was hiding around the corner. The robot instantly reacted and pointed wildly while making beeping sounds.

"Huh?" the construction worker from Hell grunted. He followed the robots pointing and spotted Ranma, who had just realized that he had been caught. "A witness! Zenitts! Get him before he squeals!"

"Huh?" Ranma blinked. Get him? Were these guys that serious about keeping all the money that they had gotten?

The robots seemed to think so as they drew weapons which looked like a combination between a sword and a gun. All of them swiftly took aim at the pigtailed martial artist before they started shooting at him.

"Woah!" Ranma cried as he dodged the bullets, letting them bounce off the brick wall next to him.

Lots of thoughts were running through Ranma's head as he raced back out to the street. Some of them were asking who these guys were, what were they collecting money for, and how far they were going to try to get rid of him. When it came to the last part, Ranma wasn't afraid to get physical on the lot of them.

Running out of the alley, he quickly ducked to the side and pressed himself against the building and waited for his opponents. He didn't have to wait long before what the goon had called Zenitts had marched out of the alley en masse before looking around in confusion.

'_Not too bright,_' Ranma smirked. Walking silently, he stepped behind the closest Zenitt before reaching out and tapping it on the shoulder. The Zenitt swiftly turned around to see who wanted its attention.

"Hi there," Ranma smiled before he reared back his fist.

POW!

The Zenitt fell to the ground with a portion of its head caved in from the force of Ranma's punch. The pigtailed martial artist had pumped some extra ki to make sure the machine went down, but it still hurt when he punched it.

The sounds of their fellow getting attacked and disabled caused the other Zenitt to turn around. With their target confirmed and in firm view, they charged to attack him. Ranma swiftly discovered that while they marched stiffly, they fought with swift movement. That fact was forced down his throat when a wild slash cut his cheek. Dangerous to the average joe, but to a trained martial artist, these guys were nothing to be concerned about if you didn't underestimate them.

Ranma himself was in a flurry of movement and attacks. One thing the Zenitts had going for them was durability and numbers. The pigtailed martial artist couldn't remember the last time he had been forced to use so much ki in physical attacks just to deal damage to an opponent. Even Saffron would get hurt from normal attacks. Still, the Zenitts weren't invincible and a solid punch to heads or general chest area would force the combat robots to shut down. A single kick knocked the head off the last machine before it fell to the ground.

"This is what I get for relying on junk droids!" a gruff voice growled from behind.

Ranma swiftly turned around to see the construction worker from hell coming out of the alley, making gouges in the brick with his I-beam shoulders as he went.

"And what are you going to do about it?" Ranma smirked. "If your little toys couldn't beat me then what chance do you have?"

"Hey! Do you know who I am?!" the goon growled. "I am Falsser! I'm a member of the Londers Family!"

"Your family cleans clothes?" Ranma blinked in confusion. Falsser immediately facefaulted from the statement. Apparently Ranma had confused the name 'Londers' with the word 'laundry'.

Ranma was never one to dabble in popular culture, or recent events, or anything that normal people would interest themselves in. If it didn't involve martial arts then he either fell asleep or just lost interest. Other times he was too busy being attacked by rivals and/or fiancées to really take notice. Because of this, Ranma had never heard of the Londers Family and since they had never showed up in Nerima before, no one had saw fit to mention them to him.

"No!" the now dubbed Falsser snapped. "I'm part of a crime family!"

"Oh," Ranma nodded. He then started to smirk. "Then I'd say you're busted big time."

"Oh yeah?" Falsser began to chuckle. "Not if I take out the only witness."

"Heh," Ranma smirked. "Just try it."

And try Falsser did. He reached to one of the I-beams sticking out of his shoulders and actually managed to pull it out, making it into a large metal club. Ranma's eyes widened when he saw his opponent pull out the weapon.

"Like it?" Falsser chuckled. "My armor is a full construction crew complete with materials!"

Ranma kept his resolve firm as he stared his opponent down. Falsser thought he was intimidating the teenager and decided to go on the attack. It was just one kid, right? Like he would be any kind of challenge.

"Hold it!" a new voice cried out.

Ranma and Falsser froze in their positions as five bodies seemed to fall out of the air. All five of them landed on their feet with their backs turned to both Ranma and his alien opponent.

"TimeRed!"

"TimePink!"

"TimeBlue!"

"TimeYellow!"

"TimeGreen!"

All five of them turned around to reveal their faces. Each of them were donned in a brightly colored outfit which corresponded with the color in their name. Their helemets had a colored visor that was shaped in a certain way while the rest was colored black. Their mouth guards were silver, but shaped like real mouths. Their bodies were covered in colored material with a white chest that had a colored symbol which matched their helmets. The only kind of difference between the suits beyond color was that TimePink had a skirt while the rest did not, hinting that one was female while the rest were male.

"Timeranger!" all five called out as they revealed small items which looked like badges a police officer might use.

"Are these guys police officers or something?" Ranma muttered to himself.

TimeRed stepped forward as he kept his badge raised, "Falsser! For breaking the laws of time, you are hereby under arrest!"

Falsser had immediately lost interest in Ranma as he turned to face the group of time police that were intent on bringing him in. Instead, he grew more determined to destroy the group that was going to try and defeat his boss.

"So you want to bring me in, eh?" Falsser laughed. "Just try it!"

Falsser reached behind his back and pulled out what looked like bronze nuts and bolts. He threw them to the sides before facing the Timerangers again. Not even a second past before the bolts started growing into large pieces of steel. The pieces collected together before combining themselves and becoming Zenitts.

"Not these things again!" Ranma groaned as he spied several Zenitts turning to look at him.

The Zenitts didn't seem to wait for any orders before they went on the attack. Ranma and the Timerangers were quick to respond with force at the mass of robots that were attacking them.

"_Chrono-Access!_" TimeRed called as he pressed the buttons on his Chrono-Changer. It glowed briefly before a pair of blades came out resembling clock hands.

"_Chrono-Access!_" TimePink and TimeBlue likewise called before bringing out blades of their own.

The three rangers began cutting into the mass of robots with striking and slashing motions. Their attacks aim was true as Zenitt after Zenitt were cut down and left sparking and jerking on the ground. It was obvious that they were too damaged to continue.

"_Chrono-Access!_" TimeYellow and TimeGreen both cried as they pressed buttons on their Chrono-Changers. This time, instead of blades, large guns appeared for them. They both looked the same with a curve near the back. The only difference was that the weapons either had a green line on it or a yellow line.

"VolVulcan!" announced TimeYellow

"VolPulser!" TimeGreen cried out.

Both rangers took aim at the advancing machines and fired. Green and yellow energy beams cut through the air and impacted against the advancing Zenitts. Robot after robot fell from the blasts. Still, they were close enough to strike back, which forced TimeGreen and TimeYellow to start running though the smaller mass of robots, shooting as they went.

Ranma wasn't staying idle as the Zenitts came at him. His punches and kicks were capable of taking down the mindless machines, but his hands and feet were throbbing from the numerous impacts they were forced through. Whatever the Zenitts were made out of, they were tough!

Ranma backed away from the mess of the last Zenitt that tried to get him and felt his back press against someone.

"Gah!" two voices cried. Ranma swiftly turned around in his battle stance only to stare into the barrel of the VolPulser and the mask of TimeGreen. Realizing that it wasn't another Zenitt that had bumped into them, both young men calmed down. Well, they did before they both saw a Zenitt coming up from behind the other.

"Look out!" both cried before they moved to the side and took aim at the backstabbing Zenitt.

"Fire!" TimeGreen cried as he launched another shot from VolPulser

"_Moko Takabisha!_" Ranma cried before launching a concentrated sphere of ki at his target.

Both robots had small explosions erupt from their chests before they collapsed into junk piles. Ranma and TimeGreen breathed sighs of relief before turning to face their apparent ally.

"Thanks," both nodded. Both of them had a number of questions running through their heads about the other, but they were kept from asking them when the roar of rage from Falsser caught their attention. Seeing the other rangers finishing with their Zenitts, both TimeGreen and Ranma went to regroup with them.

"So you beat a bunch of Zenitts," Falsser grunted. "Big deal! I'm way tougher than them!"

"Right," TimeRed commented. "We've taken down more dangerous criminals than you! This is your last chance to surrender peacefully!"

"Yeah right!" Falsser snorted. "I'm gonna demolish all of you, including that kid with the pigtail!"

The five Timereangers turned to gaze at Ranma. Some with confusion and some with annoyance, but TimeGreen was the only one who seemed at least a little accepting of him. Not that anyone could tell since they were wearing helmets.

"Just what did you do to tick this guy off anyway?" TimeBlue asked Ranma curiously. It really wasn't like the Londers Family to randomly kill unless that was their skill.

"Do you want the list?" Ranma smirked. "First I stumbled on his operation, then I trashed a bunch of his robots, and then I made fun of his Londers Family, whoever they are."

"Impossible," TimeYellow huffed. "How could a kid like you beat Zenitts without weapons or protection?"

"He can!" TimeGreen insisted. "I watched him! It was really cool! I think he's some kind of martial artist!"

"Really? Cool!" TimeRed exclaimed. "I'm a martial artist too! What level are you at?"

"That doesn't matter!" TimePink snapped. She then turned her gaze to Ranma. He could feel the stern gaze behind her visor. "This isn't your fight anymore. We can handle it from here."

"Tch, yeah right," Ranma frowned. "Listen lady, this is my home town and I'm not about to let some construction worker reject swindle money out of everyone."

"Oh, do you have the weapons needed to capture him then?" TimePink asked expectantly.

"I got my fists and feet," Ranam shrugged. "What more do I need?"

"Hey!" Falsser cried, catching everyone's attention. "Don't ignore me! Especially when I'm about to take you all down for the Don and the Londers Family!"

TimeRed didn't seem convinced as he dismissed his blades and brought out a white cannon with red streaks. TimePink brought out a similar cannon while TimeBlue armed himself with a rectangular cannon with a circular plate on the top.

"Build Up!" TimeRed ordered from his fellow rangers.

TimeRed attached his weapon to the front of TimeBlue's before TimePink slid hers underneath the both of them. TimeGreen and TimeYellow attached theirs to the sides, the curve accommodating the circle in TimeBlue's weapon. With the connection complete, the five Timerangers were now holding a large bazooka-like gun. TimeYellow and TimeGreen were kneeled down and holding the front while TimeBlue and TimePink were standing and holding the back end. TimeRed stood at the back with his hands on the trigger.

"Don't you think that's a little much?" Ranma asked. While he didn't have any reason to like Falsser, he didn't want to see him killed.

"Don't worry," TimeRed reassured. "It's set on low power so we won't kill him. It will only put him down so we can freeze-compress him."

Ranma didn't quite get the last part, but he felt better knowing that the rangers weren't going to kill Falsser. TimeRed seemed to be the most easygoing next to TimeGreen. The rest of the rangers seemed to be a little on the uptight side. If TimeRed was saying it was going to be okay, then Ranma was going to trust his gut and believe him.

"_Vortech Bazooka!_" all five rangers called out as they took aim at Falsser

"Target locked!" TimeRed called out as his suit's computer locked onto Falsser.

"_Freezing Laser!_" all five rangers called before TimeRed pulled the trigger on the weapon. There was a deafening boom before a stream of blue energy roared straight at Falsser's chest.

"Don't think so!" the former contractor laughed before he went to work. With his words, a hidden panel in his chest opened before large cinderblocks began firing out and laying on the ground in a line. Cement fired from a nozzle in his right arm, covering the top of the blocks before another layer of cinderblocks were put on top and adhered to the bottom layer. In the time it took for the blast from the Vortech Bazooka to come at him, Falsser had managed to build a wall that hid him from sight.

The blast from the Vortech Bazooka hit the new wall and forced it to explode in a shower of stone and wet cement. Smoke littered the area as the Rangers tried to get a view of their opponent.

"Did we get him?" asked TimeYellow.

"No," Ranma frowned. He could still feel Falsser's ki, as weird as it was, and it was as strong as ever. There was no sign of injury in it. "That wall blocked the whole blast."

"Hee hee hee!" Falsser chuckled as the smoke cleared and revealed himself. "I can build a wall in seconds flat! Just try to shoot me with that slow weapon!"

Ranma frowned at Falsser's jeering. Obviously the guy thought himself invincible since he dodged the shot from the large weapon the Timerangers had with them. If he could build a wall in the time it took for a single shot to reach him, he might be able to build bigger protection in the time it would take to separate the weapon and attack from all sides.

Suddenly, Ranma had an idea. It would be risky and it depended on a move he had been secretly trying to use. He had some success with it, but if there was a time that he needed to use it perfectly, it was now.

"Take another shot," Ranma spoke to the five Timerangers. "I'll make sure the next wall is gone before your shot gets there."

"Huh?" TimeYellow gaped. "Are you crazy?! You'll have to be just as fast as he is to get there and remove the wall!"

"Speed isn't the problem," Ranma retorted. "Removing the wall will be. Just take the shot and I'll take care of the rest!"

"What if you aren't fast enough?" asked TimePink.

"Well, you did say that thing wasn't enough to kill people," Ranma snickered. "I'll just have to live through it."

TimeRed looked at Ranma's stance and could tell that he truly believed that he was capable of clearing away the wall for their shot. Turning his gaze back to the still jeering Falsser, he nodded, "Okay. Just get it right."

"You bet I will," Ranma smiled as he took a stance.

"Right," TimeRed nodded before he pulled the trigger again. "_Freezing Laser!_"

Another deafening boom ripped through the air. Ranma was then off like a shot. Falsser had heard the boom as well and was making yet another wall. The Freezing Laser was coming closer and Ranma was pushing himself to move faster. He managed to stop himself in front of the wall just as Falsser put the last block down. The Freezing Laser was coming closer and would hit Ranma's back in a matter of seconds. Acting fast, Ranma raised a single finger and pressed it into the centre of the wall.

"_Bakusai Tenketsu!_"

With a resounding crash, the entire wall shattered almost like glass. Ranma was treated to the shocked face of Falsser before he leaped straight up, letting the Freezing Laser roar past beneath him. The blast continued on before colliding with Falsser's chest. The resulting explosion made a resounding boom and sent Falsser rolling across the ground and groaning in pain.

"All right!" TimeRed cheered as he and the rangers disassembled the Vortech Bazooka and dismissed the weapons. All five rangers raced over to where Ranma landed on the ground and began to pepper him with questions.

"How did you do that?" asked TimeGreen in amazement.

"How did you manage to move that fast?" asked TimeBlue.

"Just what kind of technique was that?" pressed TimeRed.

"Think I could learn to break stone with my fists?" asked TimeYellow.

"Where did you learn to do that?" asked TimePink sternly.

Falsser's groans caught everyone's attention as he managed to get back onto his feet. He looked incredibly mad as he glared at the rangers and Ranma.

"I won't be beaten!" he growled. "Especially by some kid!"

He reached down to his left arm and gripped the black and gold badge which was stuck to his arm. Gripping it, he tore the steel off to reveal purple and violet flesh underneath. Ranma was confused as to what significance it played, but the five rangers seemed to tense up. Ranma quickly understood their nervousness when he heard some kind of organic spurting noises before Falsser began to grow at a rapid pace. Soon, he was tall enough to match skyscrapers.

"Now I'll crush you!" he roared in a slightly warped voice as he brought up his foot and stomped at the rangers and Ranma.

Ranma dodged to the side, feeling very outmatched and confused while the rangers went to another side. TimeRed brought up his Chrono-Changer and began talking to Takku, "Takku! We need the TimeJets!"

Back at Tomorrow Research, the robotic owl was already sending a signal back to the 30th century, "Roger! We need the Emergency System now!"

Nothing seemed to be happening in Nerima for a while before a large multicolored tunnel appeared in the sky before five jets with the rangers' colors on them flew out of it and into the sky.

"TimeFlyer!" TimeRed then ordered, summoning a white let-like device which had enough room for all five rangers to stand on.

The white TimeFlyer came down and all five rangers leaped on board before it soared into the air. Ranma could only watch as the TimeFlyer slowed down above the TimeJets, allowing each ranger to entire their vehicle.

"Okay!" TimeRed ordered from TimeJet 1. "Let's go into Alpha Configuration. Time Robo: Mode Alpha!"

The red, yellow, and pink TimeJets lost the extra fins on their ships before the Red TimeJet folded near the back to create a red chest with a green shape in the middle. The green and blue Timejets configured themselves into a pair of legs while the pin and yellow TimeJets became a pair of arms. All five pieces joined together into a body before a dome-like head rose from the shoulders before the sides opened, revealing a face. As the large robot came to the ground the three pieces of the red, pink, and yellow TimeJets which removed themselves earlier combined into a large shield.

"Wow," Ranma gaped. "That is something you don't see everyday. Even around here."

Inside of the large mecha, the five Timerangers were standing in front of pedestals which had sword-like control rods sticking up with the five rangers' symbols on the handles. TimeRed was in the centre and was flanked by Time Pink and TimeBlue. TimeYellow and TimeGreen were at the far sides. All five rods were mental controls which reacted to the wielders' minds rather than their movements.

"Time to bring you in Falsser!" TimeRed spoke sternly.

"Ha! You think that rust bucket is going to scare me?" the former contractor laughed. "I'll show you how faulty its construction is!"

Falsser opened his chestplate again before firing gargantuan-sized cinderblocks at Time Robo. The large mecha raised its shield and blocked the attacks. Unfortunately, the blocks' weight and the force of the shots were slowly forcing Time Robo back.

"Oh man!" TimeYellow grunted in exertion. "Why do these things have to be so heavy?"

"Keep strong!" TimePink called to everyone.

"We can do this!" TimeRed spoke with some strain in his voice.

"But we can't even call out the Space-Time Sword!" cried TimeGreen.

"We will when we need it!" TimeBlue insisted.

Down below, Ranma could see that the rangers were in trouble. Falsser was still shooting his cinderblocks and was slowly forcing the giant robot back. Sooner or later things were going to change. Either the robot's shield was going to break or they were going to be forced far enough away that Falsser would have enough room to use a better attack.

"I've gotta do something," he frowned as he began leaping onto the rooftops.

Since Falsser was so big now, there was probably little Ranma could do to actually hurt him. Still, the pigtailed martial artists knew a lot of vulnerable points in the human body. Despite the fact that Falsser wasn't human, he still had a humanoid form, which meant a humanoid skeleton.

Positioning himself behind Falsser, Ranma spied seams in the giant alien's armor. They were too thin to take care of while he was normal-sized, but now that he was big, there was more than enough room to take advantage of it.

Knowing he was short on time, Ranma cupped his hands together and began concentrating his ki again. Instead of stopping at a normal Moko Takabisha, Ranma kept pooling more and more of his ki into the growing sphere. The orb of energy grew at a rapid pace before it was roughly the size of a small car. Ranma was sweating and grunting with exertion, but he had to make it as big as he could. If he didn't then his plan might not work and the rangers were in trouble.

"_Moko Takabisha!_" Ranma roared as he fired the car-sized ball of ki at his target.

The ball of ki ripped through the air and found its way to the seam in Falsser's armor. It slipped right through the seam and exploded against his vulnerable flesh.

"Gyaaaaahhh!" Falsser roared in pain as his leg crumpled and he stopped his barrage. "My leeeeeeegg!"

Time Robo looked out from behind the shield and the five Timerangers were confused as to what had happened.

"Why did he drop?" asked TimeGreen.

"I think I know," TimeBlue answered as he got the viewing screen in the mecha to zoom in on a figure on a rooftop. He was on his knees and panting heavily, trying to catch his breath again.

"That kid again?" TimePink asked in shock.

"What did he do?" asked TimeYellow in confusion.

"He gave us an opening!" TimeRed answered as he gripped his control rod. "_Space-Time Sword!_"

The green centre of the Time Robo's chest burst into bright light as a large sword emerged from it and fell into the open air before being caught in the Time Robo's hands and held high.

Inside the Robo, TimeRed's control rod turned into a copy of the Space-Time Sword and he pulled it out of the pedestal. Raising it high, the sides of the blade fell horizontal of the hilt, looking like clock hands. The real sword did the same as the holographic image of a green clock face appeared over the sword.

Falsser struggled to stand again, but his eyes widened when he saw the Time Robo coming at him with its sword raised for a final strike.

"_Press Blizzard!_" TimeRed roared before he slashed with his miniature blade. Time Robo followed the action and slashed across Falsser's chest. Sparks erupted from the alien's armor as Time Robo came to a stop behind him. All of a sudden, time seemed to stop as the mecha raised the sword again.

"Time's up," TimeRed spoke with a sense of finality.

The holographic clock face appeared in front of the sword again. This time, mechanical ticking sounds echoed through the air as the sword's clock hands ticked up to the blade again. When the hands touch the sword, time seemed to resume with small explosions ripping across Falsser's body with him screaming in pain. The contractor alien soon fell to the ground before unleashing a large explosion of energy.

"Waoh!" Ranma cried as he shielded his eyes from the light. The fiery explosion was a little unexpected, but he could also hear that bubbling sound that had gone with Falsser's instant growth. He had expected Flasser's aura to grow like it did before, but instead, Ranma could feel it getting smaller. To his surprise, it was getting smaller than even before his growth spurt. Now curious, Ranma leaped down to the street and searched for the source of the tiny aura. He searched for a little while before he found a miniature of Falsser that could fit in the palm of his hand.

"No way," Ranma blinked in amazement.

Loud machine noises caught Ranma's attention and he witnessed the Time Robo separating into five TimeJets again. The five futuristic machines vanished into another portal before it closed, leaving no trace of their presence.

"Hey!" a female voice called out.

Ranma turned to see the five rangers running towards him. TimePink stepped forward and held up her badge.

"You'd better hand him over so we can put him in containment," the pink ranger spoke as she walked up to Ranma.

"Wait…you mean this is that Falsser guy?" Ranma gaped. "What did you guys do to him?"

"We just reversed the process that made him big," TimeGreen explained. "The sword attack also shrunk him down further so we could contain him properly."

"Oh," Ranma blinked. It made no sense to him but he decided playing along might help. He held out his hand containing the tiny criminal as a sort of peace offering. "Fine. Take him then."

TimePink nodded and held her badge over Ranma's hand. There was a flash of light before a large grey container appeared in its place with Falsser inside.

"Thanks a lot," TimeRed nodded as he thanked Ranma.

"It's no problem," Ranma shrugged. Seeing as there wasn't a reason to stick around, he turned to head back home. The problem with the scam was dealt with and the police were probably going to show up soon. Even they couldn't ignore a giant monster and robot battle like they did the martial artist battles.

"Hey, what's your name?" asked TimeYellow.

"Huh?" Ranma blinked. He turned to face the five rangers. "Oh, Ranma. Ranma Saotome."

With a wave of his hand, Ranma walked away from the battle area. Usually he would rooftop away, but having burnt through a large portion of ki, he was feeling a little on the wobbly side and decided not to risk hurting himself.

"Strange kid," TimeBlue commented as Ranma got further away.

"I thought he was cool," TimeGreen argued.

"It doesn't matter either way," TimePink sighed. "Come on, we have to put this guy with the others."

"Right," the other rangers nodded.

As the five rangers headed away from the scene of the battle, they didn't notice someone coming out of an alley with a huge grin on her face. She had short dark hair and was wearing a yellow vest over a black striped shirt and jeans. A camera was hanging around her neck and she looked like she knew how to use it. Her name was Honami Moriyama. She was a reporter and photographer who worked for one of Tokyo's popular magazines. She had been on the trail of the Timerangers since the Londers Family first appeared and was to date, the only photographer with enough courage to photograph the battles between the Londers Family and the Timerangers. She had been on the trail of the faulty material scam and had suspected the Londers Family when no one could tell what the material was composed of. Her luck had paid off when she spied the pigtailed kid fighting off the Londers robots before the Timerangers arrives. She had also gotten picks of the giant battle and of the boy helping the rangers.

"This is going to be golden!" the excited women smiled brightly.

The next few days went by swimmingly with no major crisis threatening citywide destruction. Well, that still happened in the Nerima ward where the fiancées and rivals were still after Ranma for their own ends.

At Tomorrow Research, the five Timerangers were busy with their day-to-day activities. Yuuri was looking through documents again while Ayase was looking at some of the newest car models. Tatsuya was having a rare day off and was enjoying the rest he was getting. Sion and Domon were looking over the newest magazine which was following the exploits of the Timerangers.

"Hey, it's that kid again!" Domon called out. "The one from the other day!"

The attention of the five rangers was now firmly captured as they peered at the pages. There were photos of the rangers dealing with Falsser and the Zenitts, but there were other photos of the pigtailed kid trashing a group of them on his own.

"Wow," Tatsuya admired. "He took out a whole mob of Zenitts on his own? The kid must be good."

"No way," Yuuri frowned. "He had to have had some help."

"You know, the style looks a little familiar," Domon frowned. "I swear I could have seen it somewhere before."

"Looks like a kid punching a Zenitt's head off to me," Ayase shrugged. "The kid must be something else if he can do that."

"They're calling him an apprentice Timeranger," Sion smiled. "Cool! Too bad we can't make him a real Timeranger. He'd be really good at it."

"No we shouldn't even if we could," Yuuri frowned. "We can't afford to let people in on our secret. It's too dangerous."

"Right, right," Tatsuya sighed. "Still, imagine if he could be a Timeranger? He'd be pretty good at it with those kinds of moves."

"Oh please," Yuuri sighed. "He didn't seem to have any discipline and he was sticking his nose into the fight even after it got too big for him."

"That just means he won't give up," Sion smiled. He liked the thought of having someone his own age to talk to. It was hard being the youngest member of the team at only 17 years old.

"And he's too thick to know when retreat is a good idea," Yuuri countered.

Ayase, Domon, and Tatsuya just waited out the storm and continued reading the magazine article about their other faces and the 'deputy Timeranger'.

Nerima was as it always was, destructive and crazy for one Ranma Saotome. Since his fight alongside the Timerangers, people were asking him questions about them. It only got worse after the article calling him 'the deputy Timeranger' came out, making people ask him if he can get them the Timerangers' autographs. All the attention served to make the pigtailed martial artist even more confused. He had just met the group when they fought that Falsser guy. It wasn't until Nabiki sold him all the information she had on the Timerangers did he finally understand. Apparently, they were a group who dressed in colorful outfits who fought aliens from another group called the Londers Family. Losing the money he had blown on Nabiki's information got him mad since he already knew that much after meeting the group.

At the moment, Ranma was having one of his incredibly rare moments of peace. His father and Mr. Tendo were busy playing Shogi like they always did when they weren't trying to force their kids together. His mother was visiting and making lunch with Kasumi. Nabiki was counting money while Akane was out in the dojo.

It was getting to a point where Ranma was almost wishing for the Timerangers to come back or something similar to happen. It would at least be a change from the usual craziness and it would get people to lay off his back.

"What I wouldn't give for some peace," Ranma sighed deeply.

Ranma looked out at the streets of Nerima and saw something odd. There was a black car driving down the street straight towards the dojo. He almost wrote it off as nothing before he saw it park right in front of the dojo's front gates.

"Now what's going on?" he sighed.

Inside the dojo, there was a knock on the door. Kasumi quickly wiped her hands off and walked to the front door. She quickly opened the door to see who the newest visitor was. The man standing at the door seemed to be on the ending side of his middle age. He had black hair mixed with the deep gray. He had his eyes covered by a black pair of sunglasses and was wearing a casual suit and tie.

"Hello, there," the man smiled pleasantly. "I was wondering if this would happen to be where either Nodoka, Genma, or Ranma Saotome reside."

"Oh my! Why yes," Kasumi nodded. "Genma and Ranma do live here and Nodoka is visiting."

"Now that is some good luck!" the man smiled. "I have a little bit of business with them. May I come in?"

"Of course," Kasumi smiled. "Please do!"

The man bowed respectfully and walked inside. Kasumi smiled kindly. This man was so polite! He didn't come with his daughter so he probably wasn't the father of a fiancée Genma had set up. He was rather warm for a bill collector. She found her curiosity piqued.

The man removed his shoes before donning the spare pair of indoor slippers. Kasumi then led him through the house until she brought him to the main living room where most of the adults were living.

"Who is it, Kasumi?" asked Soun curiously.

"Yes. Who is…erk!" Genma began before he froze at the sight of the man in the doorway.

"Saotome?" Soun blinked as he turned to face his friend. The elder Saotome was sweating profusely and looking for a quick exit. He only did that when someone who could threaten his well-being was in the near vicinity.

"Hello to you, Genma," the man frowned. "I hope you've been treating my daughter well. Oh wait, you abandoned her as soon as your son was old enough to be without her."

"Uh…well, uh," Genma gulped. He had a perfectly good explanation for what he did. He was just so nervous that he really couldn't say anything.

The silence was broken as Nodoka came out from the kitchen when she heard the noise over a guest, "Who is our gue-Oh! Daddy!"

Soun and Kasumi both gasped when they heard the surprised Nodoka speak her words. This man was her father? They had never heard her mention that she still had a father or anyone like that.

"Hello to you too, Daughter," the man nodded. "I hope you have been well. I heard how Genma abandoned you and stole your son and my grandson. Nodoka, why didn't you tell me? Why did I have to find out through my contacts?"

Nodoka seemed to recover herself and stood as politely as she could, "Genma didn't abandon me, Father. He took Ranma out on a training journey to ensure he would be a man amongst men."

The man sighed in agitation and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Now this is a something I've heard for a long time."

There was some more clatter before Ranma himself slid off of the roof and into the living room. He looked around in confusion before his eyes landed on the man who was talking to his mother.

"Who's this guy?" he asked plainly.

"Ah, this must be Ranma," the man smiled as he took off his glasses. His eyes were revealed to be the same shade of blue that Ranma's own eyes were. "Nice to finally meet you."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked. "Hey, you aren't the father of some girl Pop engaged me to, are you?"

"No," the man denied, though he visibly twitched at the mention of the engagement. "We will be talking about that though. My name is Otaru Nogami. I am your grandfather."

The room went silent as Ranma took in that little bit of information. He slowly managed to get his voice back when he finally voiced a question, "So, what have you been doing all this time?"

"If we can have some tea, I'd be happy to explain," Otaru replied.

Soon enough, Ranma was seated across from his grandfather with Nodoka and Genma sitting by the side. Nodoka was trying to remain calm while Genma was sweating bullets. It seemed neither of them were expecting to see th eolde rman, in fact it was more like they were hoping not to see him.

"So…uh, tell me about yourself," Ranma opened the table.

"Gladly," Otaru smiled. "Well, I am 61 and I am a retired police detective, though I do offer my services from time to time."

"Explains why Pop is so nervous," Ranma sighed. "So, where exactly have you been? Why haven't you tried to contact us?"

"A couple of reasons," Otaru explained. "The main reason is because your mother and Genma were good at covering their tracks."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked. "But why?"

"We had our reasons, son," Nodoka spoke. "It isn't of your concern."

"Daughter, Ranma has every right to know," Otaru said sternly. He turned to look at Ranma again. "You see, I did not approve of my daughter marrying Genma. She said she loved him, but he had no way of really supporting her or a family. His main source of income was leeching off rich people or outright theft."

"Sounds like him," Ranma sighed. "So what happened?"

"Well your mother seemed convinced just because he filled her sense of what made men, they would be happy," Otaru continued. "If this was the age of the Samurai then perhaps I would have let it go, but this is not then and society demands different things from people. When I told Nodoka I would not allow a marriage until Genma had a job, and enough to start supporting a family she did not take it well. Since Genma would never have a job even if his life depended on it, both he and Nodoka eloped and ran off."

"Oh my!" Kasumi gasped. "How terrible!"

"Yes," Otaru nodded. "I searched for them, but Genma knows how to cover his tracks when he's running from people. Coming from years of experience I suppose. The only news I got was police descriptions matching Genma's face or people outright saying he was the one who cheated them. Eventually, I got news that they had a son. It seemed like Nodoka was determined that I stay out of her life."

"Since you were not going to support our relationship, I saw no reason to include you, Father," Nodoka spoke up.

"No, it was because I would not live in your fantasy world of Samurai and warriors," Otaru frowned. "If Genma cleaned up his act and proved he was able to support you, then I would have let you marry him. However, since he was determined to live with the least amount of effort, I decided he was unsuitable for you."

"Genma is very suitable!" Nodoka insisted.

"Why?" Otaru frowned. "Just because he is what you consider manly? Because he would peek in hot springs? Because he had loose morals? Because he would steal underwear like his piece of filth master? This is not the age of Samurai where birth means something! This is an age were hard work and dignity are more important. Something Genma does not have since he seems allergic to hard work and prostates to an old man just because he doesn't want to get hurt. In that case, I see Ranma as more of a man than Genma could ever be! Even in female form!"

Genma blanched and Nodoka gasped out loud at how grievously Otaru had spoken about Genma. Ranma was floored about the fact that his grandfather knew about his Jusenkyo curse and seemed to be okay about it.

"Yes, I do know about the Jusenkyo curse," Otaru answered the unasked question. "And unlike those here who judge him, I accept Ranma for who he is. If he turns into a female then I have a part-time granddaughter. Simple as that."

"Really?" Ranma blinked.

"Of course," Otaru nodded. "I've seen stranger things than someone who can just change genders."

Ranma suddenly felt something like a large weight come off of his chest. When he heard that this man his grandfather, he was worried about his reaction to the curse. Apparently he had long since known about it. The fact that he accepted it scored the older man numerous points in Ranma's view.

"After some serious digging, I discovered Genma's farce of a training journey which deprived my grandson of an education and a happy childhood," Otaru frowned. "Instead, he has grown up ignorant and used as a piece of property which Genma has bartered off at every convenience. Examples of Miss Kuonji and the Daikoku come to mind."

Genma wanted to say something, but he really couldn't think of a way to defend his actions.

"A manly man should have many girls after his hand," Nodoka said calmly. "And it will bring so many grandchildren!"

"Hmph!" Otaru frowned. "It is against morality to cheat on a spouse or have several girlfriends. Ranma is only seventeen years old and I think he can make his own decisions concerning who he will marry and when he will have children."

"Finally, someone who isn't forcing me to do what they want," Ranma sighed silently to himself. It seemed that no one was listening to him again, but he didn't notice Otaru's eyes turn to him before returning to his stubborn daughter.

"RANMA WILL MARRY AKANE!" Soun bawled out with his demon head. "IT WAS AN OATH MADE BY OUR FAMILIES!"

"Genma broke that oath a long time ago when he started thinking with his stomach rather than his head," Otaru sighed. "He invalidated the agreement with your family. Besides, it's not like breaking his word is anything new. Furthermore, you haven't paid a dowry so you really don't lose anything."

"BUT WHAT ABOUT TAKING ANYTHING GOES TO THE NEXT GENERATION?!" Soun cried out.

"Ranma can do that himself if what I've heard about his skill is true," Otaru countered. "Besides, there's not much of a Tendo school left since the only master refuses to train his heir."

"WHY YOU!" Soun cried out. Both he and Genma were suddenly up and using a flying kick to try and hit Otaru. For Soun, it was a misguided attempt to prove the Tendo school was worth passing on, and for Genma, it was to get Otaru away since Ranma was showing interest in knowing the older man, and he couldn't afford that! Not when Otaru had the power to dissolve engagements since he was the head of Nodoka's family, which she wasn't taken out of when the eloped. That meant Ranma was a Nogami as much as a Saotome.

"Infinity Style," Otaru calmly announced. "World Revolution."

Otaru kneeled on one leg and raised his hands up. Grabbing Soun and Genma's legs, he used their own body weight against them. Leaning back, he threw them out of the doorway and into the koi pond. A soggy Soun and panda was the result.

"Do not assume you can bully me with your martial arts," Otaru frowned. "My martial arts are still at their height and I can still use them despite my age."

Ranma watched the exchange with wide eyes. He was definitely impressed by how his grandfather managed to defeat Soun and Genma with a single technique. It didn't look like he had put much effort into it either. All he had done was situate himself on the ground before using the two martial artists' weight against them.

"That was cool, Grandpa," Ranma smiled, already comfortable with the older man. "What kind of style was that anyway?"

"It's called the Infinity Style," Otaru answered as he sat down ad sipped some tea. "It is like Anything Goes in many regards I suppose, except we do not limit ourselves to just martial arts. We train in many different areas and can apply the lessons to everything in life."

Ranma was now getting giddy. There was a martial art that could be used for anything? Where did he sign up to learn it?

"Now, Ranma," Nodoka calmly spoke up, trying to control the situation. "If you are interested in learning the Infinity Style, then I could-"

"Daughter, you quit trying to learn the style after you mastered the single-sword aspect of it," Otaru interrupted. "Your reasons were 'a future housewife should be able to defend herself, but not look like a barbarian.' You probably chose the katana because it was the traditional blade of choice for samurai."

Everyone in the room looked at Nodoka strangely. They had assumed that with her skill with the blade, she was an excellent martial artist. Finding out that she quit after learning one aspect of it just because it wasn't traditional put her in a new light in the eyes of the audience. Ranma was shocked because he figured she was the sensible one of the family.

"So, Ranma," Otaru continued, turning to his grandson. "Are you interested in learning the Infinity Style?"

"Heck yeah!" Ranma grinned brightly.

"Now, Ranma," Nodoka began to frown. Things were quickly getting out of control and it was high time she as a mother stepped in and brought order to things.

"Daughter, Ranma is seventeen years old and more than capable of making decisions regarding his life," Otaru spoke, interrupting Nodoka again. "After all, that was only two years before you ran off with Genma."

Nodoka was cowed again. Her father did have a point. She was around the same age as Ranma when she decided to run off with Genma. As much as she didn't want her son interacting with her father, she couldn't find any logical and good reason to keep it from happening.

"Excellent!" Otaru smiled. "I would be happy to teach you Ranma. It would also give me time to get to know my only grandson."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card, "I live at this address. Come by after school and we can go from there."

Ranma took the card and read it over. His grandfather seemed to work as a private detective at a place called Tomorrow Investigations. It was in a different part of Tokyo, but it was still close. He could get there easily.

"And no I must say goodbye for now," Otaru sighed as he stood up. "A client of mine is going to visit soon and I have to be at the office. Good day."

Otaru then left the room and headed to the door. Kasumi followed, being the polite host. Ranma just continued to read the card, committing it to memory in case he lost it. This was a big chance for him to get to know his family and he wasn't going to blow it.

On the other hand, Nodoka was getting tense. She knew her father didn't approve of her marrying Genma, but he couldn't do anything about it now. Still, he may not approve of Ranma being promised to Akane. Since he did not remove Nodoka from the Nogami registry when she married, he had some say in who Ranma would marry. While Nodoka knew that Akane was a very sweet girl, she could tell that she had a slight temper problem. Nodoka silently vowed to make Akane into the perfect wife so that her father would see no problem with the Saotome/Tendo agreement.

The sounds of footsteps echoed in the silent house before Nabiki walked into the room. She could tell just by the stunned looks on everyone's faces and the soggy fathers that something had happened underneath her nose.

"Okay," she sighed. "What did I miss?"

Out in the deep forests where only a few ventured, there was a strangely-shaped building which was leaning on its side. To people who paid attention to detail, it looked like the building had appeared out of nowhere a short time ago. In truth, this building used to be the main centre of the Londers Prison Facility before it became the main base of the Londers family.

Inside, there were three figures that made up the hub of the Londers Family. Sitting in a chair and smoking a cigar was a frog-like being who wore dark clothes and gold chains around his neck. He looked somewhat pudgy, but it didn't mean that he was unfit. Inside his head was a calculating and cunning brain which was only focused on money. This was the head of the Londers Family, Don Dolnero.

Off at a table, polishing his right claw, was a golden android with a glittering cape that covered his right side. His body was streamlined and showed a lot of advanced technology. At the moment, his face looked peaceful enough, but he inside was an insidious brain which craved destruction. It was only made more dangerous by the technical knowledge it held. This robotic being was Gien, the tech expert of the Londers Family, inventor of the Zenitts and an old friend of Dolnero.

Gazing longingly out of the only window was the only real human of the group. She had a white outfit which showed a fair amount of skin and a white cape. Strapped to her side was a futuristic pistol. One of the most distinguishing features she had was her pink hair, which was held in her helmet. Her name was Lila and she was Dolnero's right hand girl.

At the moment, the three were inside the main regeneration room where the Londers prisoners were kept and could be frozen or released at their pleasure. Dolnero was reading a magazine with growing anger.

"One boy," the crime boss growled. "One boy revealed our operation and alerted the Timerangers. One boy held off Zenitts until they arrived. One boy crippled Falsser and allowed the Timerangers to beat him. I WILL NOT LET THIS PASS!"

Dolnero threw the magazine across the room. Lila passed a glance and picked it up to see what was getting the Don so mad. She gazed over the article until she saw pictures of a certain pigtailed boy fighting off Zenitts and unleashing the blow which crippled Falsser.

"Oooh!" she giggled. "My, he's a yummy one. A little young for me but I might be tempted to try."

Gien stood up from his table and looked over Lila's shoulder and eyed the pictures curiously through his optics, "Hmm. How interesting. I didn't know that humans could project energy like that. I hope I get the chance to experiment on him."

"Enough!" Dolnero growled, catching his lackies' attention. "This boy crossed the Londers family and mocked us! He made us look like fools! I will not let this insult stand! There will be vengeance!"

Lila stifled a giggle. If there was one thing that the Don coveted more than money or power, it was his pride as a crime boss. This boy wouldn't know what hit him. It was too bad too, he was certainly attractive. Maybe she should try and get a run at him before the Don had him killed?

Gien on the other hand got a familiar manic gleam in his eye, "Well, if you wish to make an example of him, then I believe I have just the one to do the job,"

The Don seemed pacified by this, "You do, do you Gien? That's just like you, always thinking."

Gien walked over to one of the freezing chambers in the wall and opened the door. Inside were several canisters like the kind TimePink had created to hold Falsser. Instead, these ones held all sorts of criminals with various crimes. Reaching in, Gien grabbed one before walking over to the freezing chamber where he could reanimate the convict in question.

"Prisoner number 00002, Arsonist Sogo," Gien introduced as he opened the capsule and placed it inside the chamber.

"I remember him," Lila smiled. "Didn't he burn down twenty buildings in the year 2899?"

"Why yes," Gien grinned. "He was also the second prisoner placed in the Londers Facility. He was sentenced to one thousand years for the total damage he caused."

"Hmm," Dolnero nodded. "I like it. He'd be a good one to use for this kid."

"I knew you would love it," Gien smiled as he exited the chamber and let a sheet of glass cover it. At a console, Lila pressed a button before white gas filled the animation chamber. There were some flashes of light before the process was completed. With a sliding sound, the chamber opened and out Sogo came.

He was an average physique, but his skin was a blood red. He had four arms which each had a metal nozzle on the hands which were connected to tubes running up his arms and connected to a tank on his back. His waist and lower were covered in black leather and his feet were two-toed claws. His face was insect-like with large fractured eyes, but the rest was covered in leather straps. A pair of antennae jutted from his forehead, which enhanced the bug look.

"Anybody need a light?" the convicted arsonist hissed jokingly.

"Sogo," Dolnero spoke, catching the criminal's attention. "We of the Londers Family released you and we have a little job for you."

"So long as I get to burn something." Sogo replied, his mouth in a manic grin beneath his straps.

"Then we won't have a problem," Dolnero chuckled. "You see, there is this boy I want taken care of…"

Ranma looked at the building in front of him and back at the business card that was clutched in his hand. The address seemed right, but the building itself seemed completely different from what he was expecting. When he head that Otaru Nogami was his grandfather from his mother's side, he was expecting a traditional home like the kind that the Kunos lived in. Instead, he was looking at one of the most modern homes he had ever seen. The architecture was brand new and there was even a sign at the front door which had the name 'Tomorrow Investigations' on it. In all, it seemed his grandfather was very much the opposite of his mother.

The pigtailed martial artist had been receiving hell from his parents and the Tendo patriarch ever since he decided he was going to see his grandfather. Genma and Soun demanded that he never see the man again while Nodoka said he would be a bad influence on him. Nabiki had cussed when she missed the juicy event and was searching furiously for any and all information on the man. Still, Ranma was not going to be swayed from his decision, especially when there was a chance to learn a new martial art. The moment that school had ended, Ranma was off like a shot to see where his grandfather lived, which led to him standing out front of the building he was looking at.

"Man," he blinked. "Grandpa really knows how to live."

Stepping forward tentatively, Ranma walked to the front door and reached to the knocker that was attached to the wooden door. Grabbing the brass handle, he knocked firmly with what he hoped was enough force to catch his grandfather's attention.

There was some silence for a while before the clicking of a door handle signaling someone behind the door. After that, the door opened to reveal the kind face of Otaru Nogami looking at his grandson.

"Ah, Ranma," he smiled. "It's good to see you. I wasn't expecting to see you this soon. Did you have any trouble finding this place?"

"Not really," Ranma shrugged. "It was leaving that had the potential to go wrong."

"How's that?" asked Otaru, gesturing Ranma inside of his home.

Ranma stepped inside what looked like a normal work area for a person. There was a waiting room where people could sit and wait to talk to the older man and a door leading to what looked like an office in the next room. The decorations were nice, but didn't look too offensive, but rather took up some of the empty space in the room.

"Mom and Pop were teaming up with Mr. Tendo to try and keep me away," Ranma sighed.

"I should have figured as much," Otaru sighed. "Nodoka never gave up at anything, but Genma and Soun are too dumb to realize when they should stop."

"Heh, Pop never quits unless he's going to get hurt," Ranma sighed. "Then he just shoves it off to me with a lame excuse."

"He never changes," Otaru grumbled. "When it seemed like he was going to get in trouble, he shoved the evidence off on some poor sap that was nearby. How Nodoka fell for him I'll never know."

"I sometimes wonder that too," Ranma admitted. "My only guess is that Pop got caught doing something she considered 'manly' and she fell for him when she found out."

"Maybe," Otaru shrugged. "Well, enough about them, I want to hear about my grandson and his life."

Walking upstairs, Ranam found that Otaru's home looked a little traditional, but also very modern. It was like it was a mix between the past and the future all in one good-looking home. Otaru quickly got the tea ready before he and Ranma took a seat at a low-lap table.

"So Ranma," Otau spoke up. "I am aware of some of the things you did on your training trip and your year with the Tendos, but I was hoping you could tell me in better detail since some of it sounds too strange for words."

"You have no idea," Ranma sighed. "Okay, the earliest thing I remember is the Neko-ken…"

In the time that followed, Ranma described things he could remember from the training journey and everything that happened at the Tendo dojo since he had arrived there. Otaru felt himself growing appalled that Genma would put Ranma through so many dangerous training methods while he just lazed around doing nothing. The older man got all the engagements, rival fights, and crazy challenges Ranma had to go through since arriving in Nerima.

"Wow," he blinked in amazement. "Just when I thought that Genma couldn't be any more of a screw-up."

"He tends to exceed expectations when it comes to that," Ranma grimaced. "When you think he can't be any dumber, he goes and does something worse."

"So, about these so-called engagements," Otaru pondered. "I would like your opinion about these girls that seem to be after your hand."

"Um," Ranma pondered. He was a little reluctant to talk about how he felt about the Fiancée Brigade, but this was his grandfather he was talking to. He didn't have a reason to distrust the older man yet, so he decided to at least be honest with him. "Well, Kodachi is definitely not what I want in a wife. She is just plain nuts and no matter what I do, she pulls some stunt to try and force me to become hers."

"Perfectly understandable," Otaru nodded.

"Shampoo is definitely a babe," Ranma admitted with a blush. "But…they way she just uses any trick she can to force me to love her is a turn off. She claims to love me but she never listens to a word I say unless it's something she wants to hear. She also turns almost anything I do into a declaration of love and she glomps me. Her great-grandmother is okay in my book, but Shampoo just doesn't seem to understand that I don't like the way she treats me."

"Have you told her this?" Otaru asked seriously.

"Are you kidding?" Ranma gaped. "I once mentioned how she was pestering me when I was fighting Mousse and she got mad before chasing me as a cat!"

"So if you actually say how you feel about her advances, she may get angry and use her curse against you," Otaru nodded. "Quite the vindictive little girl, isn't she? So, tell me about this Ukyo girl."

"She's a bit more mellow about it," Ranma shrugged. "I mean, she wanted to kill me over her engagement since Pop stole her dowry and ditched her, but I mentioned she was cute and it was like we were friends again. Since then, she's been trying to make me her husband by taking advantage of any moment she could, like when she bought time with me alone from Nabiki, or tried to convince me of the life we could have when I was under the Ultimate Weakness Moxibustion. She's so wrapped up in this Fiancée business she keeps forgetting that I see her as a friend."

"Well, you have to remember that she has been forced to live as a boy most of her life," Otaru pointed out. "As much as she wants to be a girl again, she also wants you as a husband since you were probably her first love. What about this Akane girl that Nodoka and Genma are so determined for you to marry?"

"She's okay I guess," Ranam shrugged. "We sure didn't get along in the beginning though. We were at each other's throats all the time, and the fathers seemed convinced that this made us the perfect couple. It really ticked me off how she would get in the middle of some of my fights because she thought she was helping or because some idiot thought she would be a good hostage. She has a horrible temper too and would jump to conclusions about me and then hit me, calling me a pervert, even if she had evidence to the truth. After a while, I guess I started to fall for her and even admitted I loved her at Jusendo, but I think it is more of a friendly love rather than a marriage-worthy one."

"I see," Otaru nodded. "So you care about Akane, but you don't wish to marry her."

"I guess," Ranma sighed. "Still, the parents won't care and will try every trick they have to make me marry her come hell or high water. I'm surprised Mom hasn't tried to force me through seppuku yet."

"Oh, she and I will be having words about that contract," Otaru frowned. "I know I raised her better than that. I don't know how she got so wrapped up in the stories of samurai and such. I had thought it was a phase, but hearing her behavior now, it seems she's living in a fantasy world these days."

"She seems to think all the problems will go away if I marry Akane and take the others as mistresses," Ranma muttered. "Like that will work. Those girls are determined to be my wife."

"Love, or what we think is love, can make us do some crazy things," Otaru nodded. He then got a smile on his face as he gazed at his grandson. "Still, I think we should get down to business. Are you still interested in learning Infinity Style?"

"You bet!" Ranma grinned, instantly becoming upbeat again.

"Good," Otaru nodded. "Because you are going to get a teaching like never before."

To Be Continued…

A/N: Well, here's the Timeranger story I was mentioning in my forum. Hope you guys like it. Credit to Iron-Mantis for thinking up Arsonist Sogo.


	6. RanmaOHSHC

I do not own Ranma ½ or Ouran High School Host Club. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Bisco Hatori. They are the ones getting money for these titles and not me. I am only writing this because I am having fun doing so.

Wild Side of the Host Club

By Ten-Faced Paladin

Chapter 1: Here's Ranma…Again!

Nodoka was severely…displeased. In regular terms, it meant that she was pissed off beyond all recognition. To the older woman's credit, she was able to keep her reserve through her boiling anger and disappointment.

The reason for her anger? Simple, she had to bare witness to the farce that had claimed to be the wedding between her son and Akane Tendo. She had come expecting to see her manly son get married to that sweet Akane Tendo, only to witness her husband, her son, and some guests get in a free-for-all over the wedding cask before it was consumed by Happosai. To make matters worse, the female guests who arrived early began fighting, trying to take Ranma for themselves. One of the guests actually tried live steel against her son! It had happened a couple of days ago, but she was still seething about it.

How had it become this bad? When did it become this bad? How could she have missed it? Of course, Akane and Ranma shared some spats, but seeing how badly these other girls reacted to the mention of a wedding, it was obvious that they were aiming to be more than a mistress, they wanted to be the wife and make sure no other girls were around. That wouldn't do since a manly man just couldn't be satisfied with one woman alone. Of course, Akane and Ranma were hardly blameless. Ranma had been involved in that little free-for-all and Nodoka had seen how brutal Akane could be when she attacked that Kuno boy when he tried to woo her.

At the moment, Nodoka was cleaning the kitchen of the Tendo home as Akane and Ranma left for school. She had been giving some thought to the situation for some time. For a while now she was concerned about Ranma's actions in school and his attitude in general. It seemed that he was completely oblivious to his education and he had practically no friends. The only ones who came close were those boys who constantly attacked him and the girls who were always trying to force him to go with them.

It shocked her to no end that her son was being denied of a proper education and a good time as a teenager. He was coming to the prime of his life! He should be out there talking with friends and looking at girls. Instead, Ranma was practically alone no matter where he went and he was almost afraid to talk to girls since it always ended up in some kind of trick from the girl or him getting attacked in some way, shape, or form. That would just not do at all!

Wiping her hands from washing dishes, Nodoka decided it was time for her to step up and be a mother. She had a duty to her son to provide him with what he needed and she was going to do exactly that. Her manly son needed his education, friends, and a lot of girls to date and such. It was painfully obvious that her son needed those things. A little stability in his life would be a good thing. He needed to get away from the jealous suitors, the violent fiancées, and the numerous challenges that seemed to run his way. Still, the question was how.

"I suppose," Nodoka sighed. "It is time to talk to father."

---TIME BREAK---

"I'm changing schools?" Ranma blinked in confusion.

It was past suppertime and Nodoka had called a meeting to discuss plans she had developed since the failed wedding. Naturally, everyone was thinking or hoping for some good news. The fathers naturally hoped that Nodoka would bring their disobedient children together. Nabiki didn't care either way what was going to be said. She just hoped she could profit off it. Akane hoped it would help make the other fiancées go away. Kasumi patiently listened and Ranma just hoped it wouldn't cause too much trouble.

When Nodoka that Ranma would be changing schools, naturally everyone was a tad disappointed.

"Yes," Nodoka nodded. "After the failed wedding, I decided to see what your life was like to bring such violent reactions from everyone."

Ranma shivered at the memory. It was certainly the most violent he had seen the fiancée brigade and his rivals act. They had almost destroyed the dojo in their acts. Still, considering that the fiancée brigade destroyed his mom's house by themselves, he shouldn't have been too surprised. He had just decided to not let it get him down, but apparently his mother had had enough.

"From what I had learned," Nodoka explained. "Ranma is attacked on average about four or five times a day. First by Genma in the name of training, second by that Kuno boy when they get to school, third by the fiancées when he tries to stop their usual spats and gets caught in the crossfire, fourth by that Ryoga fellow, and even by Akane when she seems to walk in at the worst moment and she hits him with a mallet. Happosai also seems to throw in the odd fight when Ranma stops him from his raids."

"I wouldn't do it if he wouldn't be so perverted!" Akane cried in her defense. "I'm sure Ryoga would be nicer too if Ranma would stop teasing him!"

"Akane, I had people follow Ranma and he never once showed any interest in any of the fiancées, which disappoints me a little, but no matter." Nodoka shrugged.

Nabiki took in the information and glanced at Ranma. The pigtailed martial artist seemed genuinely surprised that he had been followed. That told the middle Tendo that he hadn't noticed and that whoever Nodoka had follow him had been good.

"Akane, Ranma never said one word to Ryoga before the boy would see him and shout a death threat before attacking," Nodoka deadpanned. "I am also aware of Ranma's history with the boy. Teasing may be a little rude, but hardly something to attempt killing someone over."

Akane had been effectively cowed. Hearing just how often Ranma was put in a fight was a little shocking. Being faced with Ryoga's overreactions to Ranma's words also made her stop to think a little. She had usually taken Ryoga's side over Ranma's because it looked like Ranma was teasing him, but how often was it that she had arrived in the middle and not the beginning of those fights?

"I have also been informed of the odd attacks by Ranma's teacher, principal, and the odd challenger," Nodoka continued. "As such, I have decided that Ranma needs a little more stability in his life. Being at Furinkan where he is forced to fight someone at least three or four times a day is hardly a stable learning environment."

"B-b-but Nodoka!" Genma cried out. "Surely the boy can overcome this! His career path is decided anyway. He's going to take over the dojo after he marries Akane!"

"Quite right!" Soun nodded. "Genma and I got all the education we needed on the road in our training! It shouldn't be so hard for Ranma."

'_And you can't pay the bills by yourself,_' Nabiki thought darkly to her father. '_You don't even run a dojo anymore._'

"Perhaps in your youth that was true," Nodoka nodded. "But running a dojo legally requires a little bit more than a high school education. You need a university degree, and Ranma can't get one of his education is so spotty."

"Preposterous!" Genma huffed. "We'll help the boy run the dojo! He can learn a lot from our experience!"

"What experience?" Nodoka asked. "You never once even attempted to start a dojo and Soun hasn't done so in years. My decision is firm…unless you'd like to contest my idea?"

She spoke her last words while drawing her katana. Genma gulped and sweated before shrinking back into his seat. With him out of the way, Nodoka decided to continue with her speech.

"I am also going to take steps to ensure that the fiancées and the rivals do not follow Ranma," Nodoka continued. She then turned a steeling stare at Nabiki. "That includes information leaks."

"Why are you looking at me?" Nabiki blinked, trying to act innocent.

"The wedding itself was supposed to be a secret with the guests coming after it was finished," Nodoka explained. "When I asked the fiancées how they knew, they gave me invitations that had the time of the ceremony, rather than the reception on them. They also told me that you were the one who sold the invitations to them. I do not want you to sell the information of my son's new school to anyone."

Nabiki knew she should have felt upset, but the steel in Nodoka's eyes squashed that pretty quickly. As much as Nabiki had wanted to sell the information, Nodoka's silent threat was making it pretty obvious that she would…disprove of it. Still, Nabiki's inner self asked what she could do about it. It wasn't as if she would make Nabiki commit seppuku or something.

"So where am I going to school?" Ranma asked curiously. He was definitely all for this idea since it meant he would get some peace and quiet at school for a change.

"A very good place," Nodoka smiled. "Ouran High School."

"OURAN HIGH SCHOOL?!" Nabiki shrieked out. Everyone turned to her in confusion. This was definitely not like her at all. "That's impossible! You need money and lineage to get in there! There's no way Ranma can qualify! I mean, look at him!"

"I can most readily assure you that my son does qualify," Nodoka frowned. Even though she was hiding the next bit of information, she still felt insulted. "My father, Ranma's grandfather is Tekkei Kurenai."

Kasumi and Nabiki both gasped in shock. Genma just scratched his head, but Soun was in shock at what he had heard.

"Who is he?" asked Akane.

"Tekkei…Kurenai," Nabiki gulped. "Is the most influential man in Japan next to the Emperor! Really, they are almost related!"

"Yes," Nodoka smiled. "My ancestor rescued an ancestor of the Emperor's and the two families have been very close since. Our family also has done very well in various technologic companies so we have a fair bit of money too."

"Oh my!" Kasumi gasped. "Then why does Uncle Genma…?" She left it unsaid that Genma was a notorious freeloader and it was pretty obvious that he was a thief as well as a cheat.

"Well, my family didn't really approve of my marrying him," Nodoka admitted. "So I was forced to be denied access to all family holdings until it was an emergency. I was also sworn not to tell Genma as well since they felt he would try to mooch off everything for the rest of his life."

"Hey!" Genma cried indignantly, even though everyone knew she was right.

"So how did you convince them?" Ranma asked curiously.

"Well, I just had to explain your situation and they investigated deeper," Nodoka answered. "From there, they confirmed what I told them and Father felt it was best to get you out of the situation immediately. It was them who suggested Ouran."

"Huh," Ranma blinked. It was a little shocking to find that his mother's side of the family was loaded and influential. If he had to guess, his father was still trying to find someway to leech onto it. The only two things Genma worked hard at were martial arts and avoiding work.

"So how do you plan to keep the fiancées and rivals away?" asked Nabiki. "You know they aren't the type to listen when people say things they don't like."

"My family's agents are…persuasive," Nodoka smiled, bringing a chill to everyone's spines.

"So…Ouran sounds good," Ranma gulped. It beat being hounded by fiancées and rivals everyday.

"Excellent!" Nodoka smiled as she clapped her hands together. "My family maintains an estate near there so you'll have a place to stay."

"Excellent!" Soun smiled. "He and Akane will be comfortable together then."

"What do you mean Soun?" Nodoka asked. "Ranma will be going alone."

That deflated Soun's sails quickly, "But she and Ranma are engaged! They should be together!"

"My family did not take the news of one of their youngest members being exploited by my husband very well," Nodoka explained. "As such, they are going to review all the engagements before making a decision."

"But this is a pact between the Tendo and Saotome families!" Genma blustered. "They have no say in this!"

"I am part of the Kurenai family and since Ranma is my son, my family has just as much right!" Nodoka frowned. "I asked for their assistance and they are giving it! You cannot change that!"

Genma wanted to rage, bellow, whine, and do all the things that he usually did when he tried to convince people to do something for him. Still, Nodoka's sword was out and he didn't want to risk losing something important by pressing the issue, namely his head!

"That being said, the paperwork has already been filed," Nodoka continued, regaining her calm face. "A uniform has already been sent to us as well. Ranma is to begin tomorrow."

"Uh…sure," Ranma nodded.

---TIME BREAK---

Ranma was walking in his brand new Ouran High School outfit along the fence towards his new school. After his mother had made her announcement concerning his new school, Ranma tried to figure out what was so great about it. That boiled down to paying Nabiki. She got him the information and it got Ranma to have second thoughts about going.

Apparently Ouran was a very high class school where the wealthiest and the prestigious went to school. All sorts of old and powerful families sent their kids there. The Ouran facility itself actually went from elementary school up to university with their teaching. They just had different buildings with their levels. An entrance exam wasn't expected, but you would get one of the school wasn't sure you had what it takes. Apparently Ranma's grandfather had taken care of that.

Nodoka had been insistent that Ranma not act like he did while he went to Furinkan. That meant no sleeping in class, no fighting the teachers, no fighting the students, and no destroying school property. She also told him that he was allowed to make friends…or even check out the girls there if he so wanted. Ranma didn't want to disappoint his mother, but he really didn't want to talk to girls that much. Every time he tried he usually ended up getting hit with some blunt object or obtaining another fiancée somehow.

Looking to the distance, he saw the Ouran High School coming up. Ranma had to admit that it looked like a pretty impressive place. It was a western-style place that looked more like a mansion than a school. The pigtailed martial artist was glad that his father wasn't there or else he would try to grab everything that was worth a single yen. As such, Ranma was just worried that he would face more people like Kuno.

Leaping off the fence, Ranma walked to the front gate. He idly noticed that a large group of people were hanging around, apparently waiting for something. Curious, Ranma stepped closer to the crowd and tried to hear snippets of what they were talking about. Getting only mumbles, and snippets of 'Kurenai', 'Grandson' and 'Ouran', Ranma decided to just ask.

"Hey," he called, catching a boy's attention. "What's going on out here?"

"Didn't you hear?" the boy asked incredulously. "Tekkei Kurenai's grandson is supposed to arrive at Ouran today! We're waiting for his limo to show up!"

"Limo?" Ranma blinked. He recalled that his mother offered him a ride, but Ranma already had the directions so what would he need a ride for?

"Of course!" a girl squealed. "We'd expect nothing less from the latest in the line of the Kurenai family! I wonder what model it is."

"I bet he's good looking!" a second girl shrieked. "They say all males of the Kurenai family have no problem attracting girls!"

'_The problem is making them go away,_' Ranma frowned in thought.

"Are you going to wait around too?" the boy asked Ranma.

"Um…not really," Ranma shrugged. He didn't really want to get caught as being the grandson of Tekkai Kurenai just yet. He didn't need to be mobbed so early in the morning. "I've gotta get to class. Let me know if you see him."

"Sure," the boy nodded as he returned to waiting with his fellow students.

Leaving the anticipating mob, Ranma swiftly got into the school. He secretly hoped that the teachers would help keep order. He doubted that since he had to go through the teachers not lifting a finger in Furinkan, but that was one school. He didn't like his odds though.

---TIME BREAK---

Classes at Ouran were proving to be just as boring as they were at Furinkan. Sure, the teachers seemed to have a bit more enthusiasm for the work. At Furinkan, the teachers never tried to make the material interesting, knowing the students would rather pay attention to the next big fight. Then again, working at a school for rich kids probably gave you a much better paycheck. What was there not to be enthusiastic about?

It was a hard battle, but Ranma managed to stay awake through the classes. He took the odd note, but he usually kept it in his head. There was room there for martial arts, but schoolwork has its own space. Significantly smaller, but its own space was still there.

The bell rang and all the students began getting their things together so they could leave. Since it was the end of the day, Ranma was more than happy to do so.

"Mr. Saotome," the teacher called. "A word if you please."

Blinking, Ranma looked up to his teacher, a woman named Ms. Chitose. Hefting his bookbag over his shoulder, Ranma walked to the front desk where the long-haired woman was waiting.

"Yes?" he asked in curiosity.

"Myself and your fellow teachers had been watching your progress today," Ms. Chitose explained. "You being Tekkai Kurenai's grandson, you can't blame us for being a little bit curious."

"Oh sure," Ranma shrugged.

"And we were a little concerned that you didn't even attempt to make any friends," Ms. Chitose continued. "Usually someone in your position would be a popular fellow. Instead, you have shied away from almost every attempt at contact."

Again Ranma shrugged. During his first class, the teacher had introduced him but Ranma had avoided mentioning his grandfather. Still, word had gotten out somehow and people were asking him all sorts of questions whenever they could. Ranma's usual answer was 'dunno' or 'not sure'. He tried to keep conversations short and didn't give many details. The girls of course attempted flirting with him, but they were disappointed and confused that their attempts failed miserably. Some tried tripping to reveal their panties, but Ranma hadn't even noticed. Nosebleeds abound from some of the boys sure revealed that it was noticeable, but Ranma didn't even blink.

"I'd rather…not be popular because of who I'm related to," Ranma sighed.

"Understandable," Ms. Chitose nodded. "But how are you going to make friends if you don't attempt to connect to your fellow students?"

"Never really crossed my mind," Ranma answered. "To be honest, I've done just fine without friends. It's nothing new to me."

"Oh dear," Ms. Chitose frowned. "Then it makes me glad that we did what we did."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked.

"Well," Ms. Chitose explained. "We asked some clubs if they'd like to have you sit in and try to connect with some of your fellow students. We got a number of affirmative responses. Some of them rather vocal."

"Swell," Ranma sighed. He had been hoping to go to where his mother set up his apartment. "Which ones?"

"Well," Ms. Chitose spoke as she pulled out a small pile of documents. "Almost all of them. You can take your pick."

Withholding the urge to burn the documents, he picked the top sheet. Ranma was never a club type of guy save more martial arts related clubs. The problem was that the guys involved were nowhere near skilled enough to really give him a challenge or a decent spar. So Ranma had given up on it altogether. Looking up at the paper, Ranma read the name of the club he intended to be the first to be shot down in a long line of clubs to be shot down.

"The Ouran High School Host Club," Ranma read. That was a new one. He hadn't heard of a club like that before. "What's that?"

"Ohhh!" Ms. Chitose giggled. A slight flush came to her face. "That's a popular one. The boys there are very friendly. They're popular too. Everyone talks about them. I think you'd be welcomed with open arms."

"Great," Ranma deadpanned. "Well, might as well get it over with. It says these guys are in Music Room 3. I'll find them."

"I hope you enjoy it," Ms. Chitose smiled as Ranma left the room. "I know the young ladies will like your appearance."

Walking through the halls, Ranma had to travel up a few flights of stairs before finding the room in question. Checking to see that the paper in his hand matched the sign, Ranma resigned himself to what was happening. Gripping the door handle, Ranma opened the door to see what was going on.

"-giggle- Oh Master Tamaki!"

"Hunny! Please have some of my cake!"

"Oh Koaru, remember those times?"

"Hikaru! Not in front of the ladies!"

"S-s-so Mori…um, how was practice?"

"Kyoya! I want some of those pics!"

"Right away."

Ranma blinked at what he was seeing. It seemed a group of boys were entertaining blushing and giggling girls. At a small table, a blonde boy was leaning in close to a girl and whispering in her ear, making her blush and giggle furiously. At a couch, orange-haired twins were almost flirting with each other, making the girls across from them squeal with delight. By himself, a blonde kid who looked too young for the school was sitting on a girl's lap, eating cake while she hugged him. A tall black-haired boy was making quiet conversation with a stuttering and shy girl. At one spot, a black-haired boy with glasses was handing photos to a bunch of girls who were scrambling with money in their hands.

"What kind of place did I land in?" Ranma gaped.

"Hmm?" the black haired boy with glasses blinked as he finished handing out the photos. Adjusting his frames, he walked over to Ranma. "Welcome to the Ouran High School Host Club. You're actually the first man who has shown up on our doorstep. Is there anyone you'd like to talk with in particular?"

"Huh?" Ranma blinked. The conversation made him blink out of his stupor at seeing the obvious flirting going on. Refusing to think how Akane would blow her stack, he held up the sheet Ms. Chitose had given him. "My name's Ranma Saotome. You guys offered to let me sit in on this club."

"Ah, yes," the boy smiled. It was a lukewarm smile that still sent shivers down Ranma's spine. "Well, we're glad to have you Ranma. Since the others are busy, I'll walk you through the club."

Closing the door behind him, the boy led Ranma to an unoccupied portion of the room so they could talk in private.

"My name is Kyoya Ohtori," the boy introduced. "I'm the vice-president of the group and the general bookkeeper."

Pointing to the twins, he continued, "The twins there are Kaoru and Hikaru Hitachin. A real crowd pleaser."

He then moved to the other dark-haired boy, "He is Takashi Morinozuka. We call him Mori. He's also one of our oldest members."

Continuing to the shortest boy, Kyoya went with his introductions, "He is Mitsukuni Haninozuka. We just call him Hunny. Believe it or not, he's actually seventeen."

"No way," Ranma blinked. "He acts like he's ten."

"Yes, but it brings in customers so we're glad he does," Kyoya shrugged. He then gestured to the last boy in the room, the tall blonde who was flirting without restraint. "That is our president, Tamaki Suoh. He's definitely one of our best."

"I can see," Ranma blinked. "So…what kind of club is this? I mean, I've never really heard of a host club."

"Well, we're a club that offers a service to entertain young ladies who desire a little bit of companionship. It's mostly a service offered to girls with some free time on their hands. We entertain them and show them things they prefer to see in a man," Kyoya explained. "As you can see, every member here fills a standard that girls desire in a man."

Ranma blinked and turned to see what Kyoya was talking about. Sure enough, each of the boys were acting a different way. Hunny was the child, Mori was the strong silent type, the twins took brotherly love to a new level, and Tamaki was acting like a prince out of a story.

"So the twins…do they really-?" Ranma gulped.

"No," Kyoya chuckled. "Those two are the only ones who actually act that way consciously. They love pranks and doing such things."

"Well, they sure are good at it," Ranma sighed in relief. That would be too weird even for him. "They convinced me."

"That's good. The girls eat it up," Kyoya smiled. A gleam entered his eyes as he turned to Ranma. "So…think you'd like to try what we do?"

"Huh?" Ranma gaped. He began to blush at the insinuation. "W-w-w-well…I-I-I don't think I'd be that good at it. I'm…kinda hopeless with women."

"Hmm," Kyoya pondered. "That might work in your favor. From the information I picked up, you're a martial arts prodigy, but naïve in many other areas. Since you were raised by your father with no influence from your mother, and judging by his criminal record, I'm not surprised."

"…how did you know that?" Ranam gaped. This guy was like Nabiki times ten! Only male.

"My family has numerous agents," Kyoya smiled. "Just as many as yours I believe."

"…Uh, yeah," Ranma gulped. Did he know about the curse? "Still, I don't think I'm ready for what you guys do yet. Do you mind if I just watch and pick up some tips?"

"By all means," Kyoya smiled. "I certainly hope you decide to stay with us. You'd fit in quite well."

"Maybe," Ranma shrugged.

Taking a seat in a circle of chairs, Ranma just took in the scene of girls swooning over the members of the host club. He had to admit, he envied them. These guys knew exactly how to talk to girls. Heck, a few did it with several at once and they continued to swoon. Ranma would have just continued to stick his foot in his mouth if he was in their situation. Tamaki had already moved onto another girl and was making her swoon almost as soon as she sat down. Hunny was hanging on Mori's shoulders as their clients cooed over them. The twins were hugging tightly with blushes on their faces, making their own clients swoon, almost fainting. Kyoya was calmly sipping tea with a pair of girls as he passed them some photos and they passed back money.

"Um…hello?" a shy voice spoke up.

Turning, Ranma saw a girl with long dark hair that reached down her back standing next to one of the chairs around him. She had an embarrassed flush on her face as she breathed a little quickly.

"Hi," Ranma greeted in a friendly notion. He had to remind himself that these girls were not like the fiancées and weren't going to mallet him or do something violent if they heard something they didn't like. "What can I help you with?"

"Is this…chair taken?" she asked timidly.

"Nope," Ranma smiled, not noticing the girl's blush brighten a little. "Feel free. Some company would be nice."

The girl gave a ghost of a smile before sitting in one of the chairs. She was quite red and she was looking at her lap.

"I'm Ranma," the pigtailed boy introduced, deciding that if he wanted friends, he was probably in the right spot. "Who are you?"

"Ah…Miyuki," the girl said quietly. "This is…my first time here."

"Well, this is my first day here so we're in the same boat then," Ranma grinned. "So what made you come here? You don't look like the kind of girl who has trouble catching a guy's attention."

Miyuki's blush brightened considerably as she struggled for an answer, "Well, I heard lots of handsome men pay attention to you here. I figured it would be nice."

"Well you came to the right place," Ranma chuckled, not notice how Miyuki was slowly becoming entranced by his aura of friendliness. "These guys look like real pros at paying attention to girls. Way better than me anyway."

"O-oh?" Miyuki blinked. "Y-you don't seem so bad to me."

"Well, I'm kind of hopeless when it comes to girls. I suppose it just takes the right kind for me to open up a little," Ranma chuckled. '_Like the non-violent type!_'

Miyuki's blush turned crimson, "R-really?"

"Oh sure," Ranma nodded. "I mean, out in China I met this girl who just wouldn't give up. Really makes me nervous you know? I had no idea how to deal with her."

"Oh my," Miyuki blushed. How bold of him to admit a shortcoming like that!

"I really know nothing about girls to be honest," Ranma shrugged. He then brightened up considerably. "Hey, do you think you could teach me a thing or two?"

"Eep!" Miyuki blushed crimson again. "W-well I….you seem to have…a good lead right now….um."

"You okay?" Ranma asked in concern. "You look a little flushed."

"Ah!" Miyuki gasped. "I'm just…a little warm! Yes, warm."

"Oh, then I suppose I'll get you a drink," Ranma smiled gently. "Won't be a moment."

Ranma got out of his seat and headed to where a tray of snacks were kept. Picking up a platter, Ranma filled it with a cold drink, cups, and a few cookies. They looked good, but he supposed Miyuki would want some too.

"Not bad new guy," two voices chirped.

Ranma turned to see the two Hitachin brothers grinning like goofs behind him.

"Kaoru and Hikaru, right?" Ranma asked. He knew their names, but telling them apart was something else.

"Right in one," the left twin, Kaoru, grinned.

"You're a sharp one," the right twin, Hikaru nodded.

"Thanks," Ranma nodded. "So you guys on break or something?"

"Letting our clients recover for a moment," Hikaru laughed. "Me and Kaoru went a little overboard today I suppose."

"I figured the near kiss was a little too much," Kaoru grinned. "Still, we saw the girl you're talking to. She seems pretty flustered. What did you say?"

"She's just a little warm," Ranma shrugged. "I'm getting some drinks and snacks for us."

"Oh, she looks a little warm to me," Kaoru nodded.

"That she does Kaoru," Hikaru nodded. "Better not cool her off too much. She looks like she's enjoying herself."

"Well, she is nice company," Ranma nodded. "I don't want to keep her waiting either."

"Then don't let us keep you," Hikaru grinned.

"Keep up the good work," Kaoru nodded.

Ranma nodded and headed back with his tray of snacks. The twins watched him go with growing smiles on their faces.

"You know," Kaoru smiled. "I don't think he realizes that he's entertaining her."

"Your right," Hikaru grinned. "He's a complete natural and hasn't even realized it."

Ranma balanced the tray perfectly as he returned to where he and Miyuki were sitting. Setting it down, Ranma got back in his own seat. Miyuki smiled and nodded her thanks before nibbling on a cookie.

"All we have is hot tea so I suppose it will have to do," Ranma shrugged. "I hope you aren't too disappointed."

"Oh no!" Miyuki giggled. "Not at all."

"Good," Ranma sighed in relief. "I was a little worried that you'd be upset with me."

Miyuki giggled, "Oh I wouldn't get upset over something like that."

"Really?" Ranma blinked. "Wow, I wish I met girls like you sooner. Maybe I wouldn't be the hopeless case I am now then."

"O-oh," Miyuki blushed, but the smile on her face was unmistakable. "There's plenty of girls who'd love to help. You aren't that much of a hopeless case."

"Well, I dunno," Ranma pondered. "I've got a lot of catching up to do. If you want to help, we'd have to meet up often."

"Ah," Miyuki blushed. "O-okay!"

A chiming grandfather clock got the two teens' attention as they turned to check the time. When Miyuki read it, she began to pout a little.

"Oooh, I have to get going," she sighed. She turned back to Ranma hopefully. "Will I be able to see you here tomorrow?"

"Sure," Ranma nodded. "I'll be waiting."

"Oooh!" Miyuki squealed excitedly before she nodded goodbye and left.

In his chair, calmly sipping tea, Kyoya had been keeping an eye on Ranma through is stay. The new student proved to be very good at the Host Club business. They were talking for some time before the girl in question got up and prepared to leave. She was definitely satisfied if the smile on her face was any indication. As she headed for the door, she stopped and headed to Kyoya.

"Um…are you the one who handles appointments?" she asked.

"Of course," Kyoya smiled as he took out his ledger and a pen. "Is there anyone you'd prefer?"

"Ah…could yet set me up with Ranma as soon as possible?" she asked.

"Of course," Kyoya nodded. He quickly created a column for Ranma and made the appointment time. "Name?"

"Miyuki Fujisawa," the girl smiled. "Thank-you!"

"Glad to be of service," Kyoya smiled. As Miyuki skipped away, Kyoya had to smile. "First day and he already has an appointment. How talented."

Time slipped on and Ranma continued to watch the Host Club work. They wooed and complimented every girl they were paired up with. Ranma was basically left alone while they did so. He didn't mind though. He was too busy marveling at how the boys could flirt with every girl in the room and not get malleted for some reason.

Eventually the last of the girls went and the Host Club seemed to be finished for the day. Hunny and Mori began putting away their plates while Kyoya began getting his numbers crunched. Tamaki had spotted Ranma and was already putting a welcoming smile on his face.

"Ah! Our newest member!" Tamaki smiled. "Welcome Ranma Saotome! I hope you managed to learn a thing or two from our shining examples."

"Uh…maybe a thing or two," Ranma shrugged.

"Not that he needed it," Kaoru snickered, leaning on Ranma's shoulder on the left.

"He seemed to be a complete natural," Hikaru grinned, leaning on Ranma's right.

"Huh?" Ranma blinked as he looked at the grinning twins. What were they talking about? He hadn't been flirting with girls like they do. All he did was talk to that Miyuki girl. She was nice and very easy to get along with. "What are you talking about?"

"Why that stellar performance with a new client!" Tamaki smiled. "I must say that you're a real charmer. It takes an expert hand to leave a girl giggling and blushing like the maiden that she is."

"Uh…," Ranma blinked. That girl was a customer? Well, then why didn't she sit in with one of the other guys?

"She was really happy!" Hunny agreed. He bounced over to Ranma with a stuffed rabbit in his arms. Cake was smeared on his face from eating it while running.

"Yes," Kyoya agreed. "She asked me if you would be here tomorrow so you could see her again. I hope you don't mind but I already set up the appointment."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked. "Wait you mean I did what you guys do with Miyuki?" No way! He couldn't have!

"That's all there is to it New Guy," Kaoru chuckled. "It's not hard. You're a natural at it."

"Yeah!" Hikaru agreed with a sage-like nod. "After all, these girls just want a little company. It's not like we're leading them on or something."

Tamaki blinked at the interaction between the new member and the twins. After a couple of moments to let his brain catch up with what he witnessed, he immediately reacted, "EGADS! You mean you did that well without having a clue what you were doing?!"

"Well, I guess," Ranma shrugged. This guy was reminding him of Mr. Tendo with the way he made outbursts.

"That settles it!" Tamaki cried as he dashed up to Ranma and gripped his shoulders. Incidentally, he knocked the twins out of the way too. "We cannot let this kind of potential go untapped! You must join our club! It's fate that led you to us!"

"Uhhhhhhh," Ranma blinked.

"Yeah!" Hunny cheered as Mori scooped him up onto his shoulders. "We haven't had a new member in so long!"

"Our workload has increased since the new term started," Kyoya nodded "We could use the extra man to help out."

"It'll be fun!" the twins grinned at the same time.

Ranma knew he was caught now. His mom wanted him to try and make more friends and despite some of the oddballs here, these guys seemed okay. Of course, the flirting relentlessly with the girls was a littler intimidating, but Ranma's mother did want him to talk to more girls. This place seemed to be a safe place for that. Not even Akane could accuse him of being perverted since they just talked to each other.

"Well…I guess I could stick around to see how this turns out," Ranma shrugged.

"Excellent!" Tamaki smiled charmingly with Hunny cheering in the background. "Then welcome to the ranks of the Ouran High School Host Club! Now, we'll have to figure out what kind of role you can fill!" Tamaki held Ranma at arm's distance and began to peer at him with an analytical eye.

"I think I have one already," Kyoya spoke up from his book. "Ranma seems to be the home-grown type of guy, but is experienced with the world while naïve in others, namely women. I think he's the perfect type of boy for those who desire someone from home with a taste of the exotic."

"Didn't get one word of that," Ranma muttered.

"Wonderful! It's perfect!" Tamaki cheered. "The natural but wild hair, the loose and relaxed stance, the eyes which speak experience no regular mortal can bear, yet hold a thirst for knowledge that can't be denied! It's perfect!" Tamaki whipped around to point at Kyoya. "Kyoya! Get on the website! By tomorrow I want the entire school to know that we have a new member!"

"I'll make a note of it," Kyoya nodded as he popped out a pen.

"Yay!" Hunny cheered as he leaped off Mori's shoulders and onto Ranma's. "This is going to be fun! A new friend!"

"Uh…sure," Ranma shrugged as he let himself relax a little more. Maybe being in Ouran wouldn't be such a chore after all.

"By the way," Kaoru spoke up as he stepped into Ranma's view, looking at him curiously. "Rumors say that you're Tekkei Kurenai's grandson. People were waiting outside for your limo but you never showed yet here you are. How'd you get here?"

"Simple, I walked," Ranma shrugged.

"Really?" Hikaru gaped, dashing into view on Ranma's opposite side. "You walked here when you had the option of coming in a limousine like others or even just a personal car? That's bold!"

"Mom offered a ride, but I already knew the directions," Ranma shrugged. "So why bother with a ride? I can easily get here on foot without breaking a sweat."

"Ooooooh!" the twins and Tamaki (who seemed to leap into the conversation from out of nowhere) gasped. Obviously it was something to be noticed when someone decided to come to school by foot instead of by limo or personal car when they had someone like Tekkei Kurenai as a grandfather. Really, just how big was the old man?"

"Yes well, it is getting late and we all have homework to get to," Kyoya spoke up. "So, let's pack it in for the night and head on our way. We all have appointments to keep after school tomorrow."

Cleaning up the music room, the boys all said their goodbyes and headed home. As Ranma left Ouran, he pulled out a piece of paper which had directions on it. It was where he was going to be living while he was taking classes at Ouran. Quickly looking them over and finding the direction he needed to go, Ranma was off like a shot. Roofhopping certainly cut down on travel time and such. Landing on the ground some time later, Ranma blinked at where the address he was supposed to be was. It certainly was the right place, but it didn't look right. The grounds had a perfectly cut lawn with trees growing side by side up to a large house that looked to be a mix of western and eastern architecture. It seemed pretty big too. Well, too big for one person.

"Wow," Ranma blinked. Shrugging, he headed up to the house to see that the address carved onto the brass plaque was indeed the same on the note that his mother gave him. Figuring that he had the right place, Ranma opened the door and stepped inside.

"Hello?" he called as he entered. "Is this-WOAH!!"

"Okeari nasai Goshujin-sama," several voices called out.

Standing in the main hall (which looked rather grand in the first place) were what had to be at least twenty maids all dressed up in black dresses with white aprons, blouses, and shoulders. Each of them had a white cap with long hair cascading down their shoulders. All of the female maids were at least in their twenties or just exiting their teens. Seeing them all smiling welcomingly and brightly made Ranma freeze in shock and/or fear.

"O…kay," Ranma gulped as he slowly began to back away. "I MUST have the wrong place…sorrytobotheryou!"

Trying to make a dash for the outside, Ranma felt the bag of his jacket get snagged by something. Looking over his shoulder, he realized that he had been snagged by one of the maids. This one was wearing the average uniform, but her hair was done up in two buns. It was ebony black which made her green eyes stand out. Her figure was curvy and she had a generous bust. Usually any man who saw her and was caught by her would have been grateful to get this close.

Ranma Saotome was not one of these men.

"Look, I obviously have the wrong house and I'm sorry for barging in," he gulped. "So I'll just leave, no harm, right?"

Blinking slightly, the woman began speaking, "Ranma Saotome-sama. Is that you?"

"Uh…yeah." Ranma gulped, completely missing the sama added to his name by the maid. "Look, if my pop cheated the owner of this place then I can just…"

"Oh don't be silly!" the woman giggled. It served to make her chest wiggle, but again Ranma didn't notice. "Ranma-sama, YOU are the master of the house. All of us here are here to serve you!"

"…huh?" Ranma blinked. "Wait…you mean you all work for my grandpa?"

"He does sign our pay stamps," the maid nodded. "Of course, you're the one who tells us what to do. Don't be afraid to ask us for anything should you require it. Okay?"

Ranma blinked confusedly, looking from the busty maid back to the other women who were smiling brightly just the same. He didn't quite understand why he needed maids in the first place, but he didn't really see anything he could do about it. It's not like he could send them all home or something. They worked for his grandpa even though he did have the right to tell them what to do at the moment. Still, he never was much of one to boss people around.

"Um…thanks," Ranma nodded. "Wasn't quite expecting maids though. So…uh…do I have a room here…or something?"

"Of course!" he busty maid nodded and snapped her fingers. Suddenly, two more attractive maids popped up and began pulling on Ranma's arms, leading him to the main staircase. "These two will show you the way. Enjoy yourself!"

Ranma didn't even have time to question what was happening before he was guided into a large room. It was filled with expensive furniture and even had a canopy bed. A private bathroom was located nearby. Plush Victorian furniture was in the room and hardwood dressers were available to keep his clothing in. Ranma blinked at the extravagance of it all, was his grandpa really this loaded? It was all too much for Ranma's personal tatstes.

"Here you are Ranma-sama!" both maids smiled, releasing the pigtailed boy. Shaking his arms, Ranma eyed the two who had grabbed him.

Both were dressed in the usual garb of the maids, but their hairstyles set them apart. One had dark hair which seemed almost green and was done up in two braids. The other had short violet hair which framed her face cutely. Both were certainly attractive and would have had the hentai horde from Furinkan High running. Their figures would have had even ore men from the school coming since they were both naturally curvy in all the right places. Of course, Ranma wasn't paying too much attention to their looks as he was the room.

"Uh…thanks," Ranma nodded absently, looking at the room.

"Our pleasure Ranma-sama," the green-haired maid smiled. "Just ask us for anything should you desire it."

"Especially if you need your…manly, desires fulfilled," added the violet-haired maid huskily.

THAT brought Ranma's attention to full force on the two maids. He now knew that his mother had to be involved in some way with the house. She was the only person he knew who talked that way. She had often asked him about what manly desires he entertained and how he quenched those desires. She kept hinting about girls and such, but he never could catch on to what the heck she was talking about. Of course, hearing these maids talk that way, he could see her hand in this, "My mother had you two placed here didn't she?"

"Yes!" green hair smiled. "Lady Nodoka hand picked all of the maids here because of the training we underwent with her mother on the lessons of servicing men amongst men!"

"So, do you need 'service' Ranma-sama?" asked the violet-haired maid with what Ranma assumed to be excitement in her eyes.

"Uh…no," Ranma answered simply. So his grandma was the one who got his mom into all of the man amongst men stuff? Well, she had to have picked it up somewhere. Still, being in a large house with at least twenty girls who followed the same train of thought was going to be troublesome.

"Oh," both maids sighed before slumping in disappointment. Both bowing respectfully, they left the room. However, the green-haired one poked her head back in before the door shut completely and added, "We maids have a communal bath near the back on the first floor. Feel free to stop by if you feel the need."

With that, she left and shut the door behind her, leaving a confused Ranma behind. Why would he want to go to that bath when he probably had a shower in the bathroom connected to his room.? Shrugging, he dropped his schoolbag next to a solid oak desk and flopped onto his bed. The day hadn't been so bad and definitely not as crazy as his usual days at Furinkan. At least the guys in the host club seemed somewhat normal. They weren't complete weirdoes like the wrecking crew.

* * *

Ten-Faced Paladin: What do you guys think? This idea just popped into my head one day and I decided to write it down. After so long of not knowing what else to do with it, I decided to post it in my idea farm.


	7. Riders of Camelot

**RIDERS OF CAMELOT**

**Riders of Camelot**

**By Ten-Faced Paladin**

**Chapter 1 Here be there Heroes**

The Kingdom of Camelot had seen better days. The great kingdom overlooking the sea was still a splendid sight to see, but the times of war had been hard on it, giving it a dark and depressing face. The kingdom had been under siege by the evil witch Morganna and her Warlords, men carved from stone and given life with magic. No sword could cut them, no disease could sicken them, and no arrow could pierce them. In earlier times, King Arthur and his eleven Knights of the Round Table could fend off such forces with their might, magic, and courage. However, Arthur and his knights were gone. Trapped inside the fabled Cave of Glass, prisoners of Morganna's magic. Without Arthur, it fell to Merlin to keep the castle safe from harm.

And this day his extreme magical talents would be tested yet again.

Emerging from the forests on horseback and foot, carrying spears, axes, swords, or whatever deadly weapon they could get their hands on in the middle ages, Warlords came. The majority of them looked similar and rightly so since they were practically mass produced by Morganna's magic. Their armor was gray with red circling the shoulders and a red spike emerging from it. The chest had a splash of gold on it, but it was dull. Their helmets were box-like with more dull gold around the base and red horns sticking from the sides with only a horizontal rectangular slit to see through. They weren't the smartest of beings, but they followed orders to the letter. Thinking was more the talent of the more powerful Warlords.

One such individual was Lord Viper. He was the field commander of all the Warlords and when he said something, you listened or paid the consequences. He wore dark green armor with demonic black shoulder guards and shin guards. His chest was marked with a cobra design. A black cape hung from his shoulders, making him look more intimidating and regal. His helmet was styled after a snake with his eyes being visible through the snake's own and its fangs framing his mouth. Out of all the Warlords, he looked to be human, unlike the rest whom were obviously made of stone. He was mounted on his black horse which was covered in green serpentine armor which gave it a most fearsome image.

"Are you sure we should be attacking Lord Viper?" asked an approaching Warlord. This one was donned in slate gray and black armor with little decoration. The chest piece had a red and yellow crest on the front and his shoulder armor had white spikes rising from them. His helmet was gray as well, with only two triangular holes for sight which revealed only darkness, proving that this was one of the Warlords forged from enchanted stone. His helmet had two axe blades donned on either side of his head with a straight blade emerging from the top. His name was Warlord Axe, one of the generals. His was mounted on a horse-driven wagon which was mounted with a large number of axes which gave him the capability of cutting through almost anything. "I mean, Merlin will just use his magic to raise a barrier around Camelot!"

"I'm counting on that," Viper chuckled darkly as he gazed hungrily at the castle. "My plan depends on it." Grabbing the handle of his sword, he drew it, revealing a serrated edge which made it look cruel and evil, he raised his blade into the air. "WARLORDS! ATTACK!"

The Warlords gave a huge battle cry as they all charged at the fortress of good ahead of them. War machines, cavalry, and infantry alike all charged at the castle they desired so. Archers grouped together once close enough and began to shoot volleys of arrows at the castle, hoping to keep enemy archers away from their fellow soldiers. The air was filled with such volleys, unfortunately the volleys were all going in a single direction.

Up on the castle wall, there was but a single defender against the army of Warlords. He wore a dark robe with gold lining it. He showed an advanced age with a long gray beard with streaks of white in it. A gold ring circled his forehead and an aura of power surrounded him. Holding out his hands, the man became engulfed with a golden aura which spread across the castle walls and rose up, keeping the arrows from penetrating and doing harm to anyone who would have been in their path.

"Fire the catapults!" Viper bellowed in retaliation. The Warlord Troopers obeyed without question as they brought the snake-themed war machines forward. Loading large rocks into the machines, they launched them into the air, sending them crashing against the old man's field.

"Never!" the old man growled. "For as long as I draw breath, I will stay here to protect this kingdom!" Blue magical power coursed through his hands and fired at the enemy. Several Warlords were struck, sending them crashing to the ground, one even shattering from the force, but no one paid the death of their comrade any mind. With Morganna's magic, he would be either revived, or simply replaced.

"Curse you Merlin!" Viper snarled, as his horse reared back from the flashing lights. "Keep firing! Give no quarter!"

Behind the protective field, in one of the tallest towers, two souls dared to brave a look at the battlefield. One was a charming young woman in a flowing pink dress and long dark brown hair. She was one of the ladies in waiting of the Queen. Her name was Lady Elaine. Next to her was a beauty among beauties with flowing orange hair with a golden crown upon her head. She wore a green dress which fit her to a tee but her eyes were filled with sorrow for something she had lost. She was Guinevere, Queen of Camelot and wife to the missing King Arthur.

"When will all this senseless fighting stop?" asked Lady Elaine in sadness as she watched the Warlords mercilessly attack the castle to no avail, but tiring poor Merlin in the process.

"I suspect it will never end until my husband returns," Guinevere replied sadly as she also took in the sights of the battle. "Although I know not where he could be."

"But…that means…" Elaine gasped.

"Oh but Queen Guinevere, if you desire to see your husband, I can take you to him," a snide voice spoke.

The two women looked up in horror at a figure standing on top of a tower, well on the safe side of Marlin's barrier. His body was gray, but blue and red armor was on his shoulders to protect him from harm. On his back spread two large metal wings with iron claws which were only matched by the wicked set attached to his feet. His helmet was pointed and blue with a yellow mouthguard shaped not unlike a beak. The eye holes were black and cold, revealing him to be another Warlord. He was Warlord Blackwing.

Leaping from his perch, Blackwing soared through the air and to the balcony where Guinevere and Elaine were watching the battle. The evil Warlord snarled, "Away wench!" while smacking Elaine away with a beat of his metal wings while taking the struggling Guinevere in hold. Chuckling, he soared towards his comrades with the Queen of Camelot in tow, "You'll be our guest of honor at Castle Morganna!"

Merlin heard the cries of his queen, and turned to see her being carried off by the airborne Warlord. Raising his hand, he attempted to use a spell which could stop the stone man and free his queen. However, Blackwing was wary of the man's magic and swooped down at him before clubbing him with his talon-clad feet, knocking him to the stone floor. Laughing all the while, Darkwing soared towards his comrades.

"Success!" Viper laughed as he spied his soldier returning. "We have claimed Queen Guinevere!"

"Wow! We did it!" Warlord Axe gaped as the other Warlords cheered for their victory.

"Onwards to Castle Morganna!" Viper cheered pointing his sword into the opposite direction of the castle. Blackwing nodded to his commander before following in the same direction. Many of the remaining Warlords followed suit, however several remained behind to form a siege line to prevent anyone from interfering with their escape. Viper's echoing laughter only served to herald his victory.

"No," Merlin groaned as he got to his feet. "Not the Queen."

-oOo-

-TIME BREAK-

Merlin sighed, recovered from his bumps and bruises, as he entered the room of the Round Table. This was the place where King Arthur and his Knights would meet to discuss strategy and other issues concerning the kingdom. However, since they had vanished, the room had been quiet and the only reason it wasn't collecting dust was because of the dutiful servants who kept it clean and ready for any eventual use.

"I have failed," Merlin sighed mournfully as he touched the surface of the Round Table, touching the emblem where King Arthur himself once sat. "Camelot was supposed to be a kingdom of pure good and justice…but then Arthur and his Knights vanished and now even Queen Guinevere has been taken. I fear…we are doomed."

Just by uttering these words, the Round Table began to shine. Energy which rippled like water spread across its surface before a figure began to emerge. The figure was that of a beautiful woman with a long white gown. Her hair was a shining golden and she wore a white headdress. She was in fact the Lady of the Lake who was the keeper of Excalibur when the King was not capable of holding it. Her soft gaze landed on a startled Merlin.

"Fear not Merlin, for all is not yet lost," she spoke. "For in the cosmos, there exist warriors whose hearts are pure, wills are strong, and filled with a passion for justice. Reaching them will be difficult, for they exist in another world, but your magic is strong. You can find them. Summon them, and they will continue the fight where King Arthur and his Knights left off." With a final smile, the Lady of the Lake vanished back into the Round Table, her task completed.

Merlin took the Lady's words to heart. There were still champions of good who remained who would be able to defeat the likes of Morganna and her Warlords! However, if what the Lady said was true, then reaching them would be most difficult. Reaching across time was an exhausting task, but reaching across worlds, that was nearly impossible. However, Merlin was confident that his magic would be able to bring those warriors to Camelot in its time of need. The safety of the land…no, the world depended on it!

The master wizard had to prepare himself. Taking a stance in front of the table, he began his spell. It would be difficult and he would have to use the power of the Round Table to anchor these brave warriors to this world. What effects that might have on the Table itself would have to be dealt with. This wasn't the time to be overtly cautious.

As Merlin chanted in a foreign language, invoking the spell, his body glowed with a mystical aura. Pulling individuals from another timeline was one thing, but to pull them out of another world which was at least a dimension away was tricky, very tricky, even for such an old and wise like himself. Still, they were desperate. Camelot, in the absence of King Arthur & the Knights of the Round Table, needed champions and if what the Lady of the Lake said was true, then these brave warriors were the champions they needed.

Merlin quickly set to work, standing in front of the legendary table which housed such potent magic. Chanting in a lost magical tongue, Merlin began to glow with a magical aura which reached to the Round Table. The magic of the table reacted, making it shine brightly. The crests of King Arthur and his knights vanished in the power before beams of light soared from the table and struck the decorative banners around the room, imprinting each knight's crest so that their power was kept for safe keeping. Continuing his chant, Merlin opened the hidden skylight which focused nature's energy for the table to use, beseeching the powers that be to summon the familiars that the new warriors would need.

He got his answer.

From the enchanted skylight, red energy poured down, taking the form of a red serpentine dragon. The great beast roared and dove down towards the table, fusing with it and creating the first symbol of the new knights, that of a dragon's head, finely crafted and carved into the table. A screech echoed out, bringing forth a dark blue bat which took up the second position. An orange crab came third, followed by a green bull and then a pink stingray. Next was a grey creature Merlin recognized as a rhinoceros from a land across the southern oceans and a purple cobra that slithered down after it. After them was the golden form of a phoenix. Following it was a blue tiger with a brown gazelle close behind. A bright green chameleon dove down next, creating another symbol, followed by a magnificent white swan. The last two were an intimidating black dragon and a shark as blue as the ocean, completing the new circle of fourteen.

Merlin's spell was not complete yet. Continuing his chant, he let his magic reach through the new familiars towards the world where their masters would be. It was difficult, a farther than he expected, but he managed to find every one of them. With sweat upon his brow, Merlin finished the final piece of his spell. His magic flared one final time, its light reaching to all corners of the room and shining through the windows for all to see. Within, a hole in the air opened wide, depositing 14 individuals upon the stone floor before sealing itself shut again. The groans of pain and dizziness sounded off, but they were alive and present for Merlin to see, much to his relief.

Stepping forward, Merlin examined the fourteen warriors whom he had summoned. They all seemed to hail from the lands of the Far East. Still, each of them seemed to be only just entering adulthood, but Merlin had learned long ago that appearances were very much deceiving. Why, Arthur himself was once a scrawny young stable boy but had a will of iron and a heart of gold that helped him become the king that he was today. Merlin had little doubt that these young adults would prove themselves just as powerful.

With grumbles and grunts, the youths began standing up. They were donned in clothes of the era, but coloured differently for each one. The men was donned in knightly robes with their emblems over their hearts while the lone female was in a white gown with her swan symbol held as a necklace. As they all got their senses back, they quickly discovered their surroundings and were more than a little confused as to what had happened.

"My apologies for your rough arrival," Merlin spoke, announcing himself and catching the attention of the young heroes. "However, it could not be avoided."

"And…who are you?" asked the lone western boy with the black dragon emblem.

"My name is Merlin," the aged sorcerer answered, causing the boy's eyes to widen in shock. "I have brought you all here because Camelot is in dire need of your assistance. Morganna and her Warlords threaten everything that the kingdom stands for and we have no means of protecting ourselves. With King Arthur and his knights sealed in the Cave of Glass, no one save myself are left to protect us."

"Morganna?" asked a young man in blue with a tiger marking. "Doesn't sound like a nice person."

"She's not," the boy with the black dragon marking frowned. "She's about as far from nice as you can get. History's not too clear on just how powerful she was, but it was pretty darn clear that she despised Arthur and desired to take everything that was his."

"Ah, you are closer to the truth than you think," Merlin nodded. "Morganna is a powerful sorceress and had created her Warlords from enchanted stone, giving them life and movement. No sword can cut them and no arrow can pierce them. Sickness does not affect them and wounds never appear. They are the near perfect army."

"Sounds real bad," muttered the boy with the gold dragon. "So you think we can stop these guys?"

"Yes, but it shall not be easy," Merlin answered. "The situation is most dire at the moment. In the last encounter Camelot had with the Warlords, our fair queen Guinevere was captured and taken prisoner by the Warlord Commander, Lord Viper."

"What do they want with her?" asked the young man with the shark emblem.

"Without the queen, Camelot is left leaderless," Merlin replied. "She was a beacon of hope that one day Arthur and his Knights would return to us. Without her, the people shall begin to lose hope and one day even beg to surrender to the Warlords. If Camelot falls, then the world is doomed."

"So we rescue Guinevere," said the young man with the bat marking. "Do you know where she is?"

"I do," Merlin nodded. Collecting magical power in his hands, he created an image of a nightmarish castle which looked like it grew out of the desolate rocky earth. "This is Castle Morganna. It is here that Queen Guinevere is being held." The image then shifted to reveal the red-haired beauty as in Merlin's memory, being attended to by one of her chambermaids.

"Wow," The gazelle marked young man breathed. "Okay, I'm all for rescuing this lady."

"Right, but even if we rescue this lady and defeat Morganna, how are we supposed to go home?" asked the young man with the chameleon mark.

"To send you home now would leave Camelot defenceless once again," Merlin explained. "However, the spell which keeps Arthur and his Knights imprisoned is not unbreakable. There exist twelve Keys of Truth which are capable of ending any curse or spell they are used upon. However, only the truly valiant can touch them, otherwise they vanish to be found elsewhere. If you find these twelve keys, we can release Arthur and his Knights. Only then can I send you all home."

"Heh, is that all?" asked the youth with the cobra marking. "Heck, this just makes my day. As far as I'm concerned, you've got a deal old man." A general chorus of agreement followed as the other young men and lone young woman all agreed to Merlin's logic. Everyone could tell that this was a big deal and thus knew that there was no turning back.

"Excellent, it was as I hoped," Merlin smiled with relief. "Morganna's Warlords are powerful. The castle armoury and stables are at your disposal. Take what you need and fear not of any sort of cost. Nothing is too great to secure our queen."

"Your generosity is appreciated Merlin," the western boy nodded. "However, we are prepared for battle already. If you wish Guinevere to be rescued, then we'll head out immediately. The only thing we'll need from you are mirrors or steel polished so well you could see yourself in it."

"An odd request," Merlin admitted with a raised eyebrow. "But easily done. I shall have horses outfitted with protective steel which does exactly that. I shall also enchant it so that it does not lose its shine if it is so important."

"Trust me Merlin, it is important," the western boy nodded.

-oOo-

--TIME BREAK—

Merlin certainly came through with his promise. Fourteen horses were prepared for the group of youths and covered with protective plating which could have been used as a mirror if one so desired. Each horse's armor was coloured the same color as each of the summoned fighters' garments and their crests were etched on the horses' flanks. The horses were waiting for the group in the courtyard as they mentally prepped themselves for the upcoming fight. It wasn't often they got the chance to prepare so they were going to make the most out of it.

Greg Jones admired the polished black steel of the horse he was given, his mark of Ryuga etched onto both sides. He was a city boy and didn't have much experience riding a horse, but he could do it given the circumstances. He was a little more concerned about the others, having lived all their lives in Tokyo and probably never had seen a horse outside of a zoo or something. Still, whatever spell or magic was used to help them speak English to Merlin hopefully gave them the knowledge to ride horses as well.

"Hey Satoru," Greg called, catching the attention of the tiger-marked young man. "Is everyone ready?"

"Yeah. Shinji and Ren were just checking with Merlin for any details they might need. Miho and Itsuro are waiting for us while Kitaoka and Asakura seem like they're ready for a fight. Tezuka says we have a good chance of victory today so I feel pretty good too."

Greg nodded. Despite knowing these people for a while, he still couldn't believe hat they were the same people from the Kamen Rider Ryuki series, only younger. The only ones he wouldn't have knows was Tetsuya Oikawa, who was a skinny kid with dirty black hair and dirty choice in clothes who could become Kamen rider Odin, and Hiroyuki Kamata who was a little tall for his age and was rather good looking to a female's eye who became Kamen Rider Abyss. All of the others looked like younger versions of their counterparts from the Ryuki television show. However, they were able to make a respectable team, especially since they all had something to gain by helping Merlin and Arthur.

Soon, all of the collected Riders were in place, ready to go. Greg did a quick count of heads to ensure that everyone was present. Seeing they were, he glanced to see Merlin approaching. The old wizard stepped up to the collected Riders before speaking, "I have the utmost confidence in your victory. I only ask that you hurry. You are Queen Guinevere's last hope."

"Then she has nothing to worry about," Shinji grinned. "We'll have her back before you know it. We won't let you down!"

"But how do you plan to fight the Warlords without weapons or armor?" asked one of the squires who prepared the horses. He was a young boy named Everett who was thin and had brown hair in a pageboy cut. Appropriate considering the time period they were in.

"Who said we were without those things?" Greg smiled. Reaching into his pocket, he produced the Ryuga deck. His friends followed suit as they produced their own Advent Decks before all of them held them up to the reflective armor the horses wore. With a shimmering noise, their V-Belts appeared in the reflections and wrapped around their waists, the same happening to their actual bodies in the real world. The squires and what witnesses there were gasped at the sight. However, the Riders weren't done yet as they made motions with their hands before giving a unified cry of: "Henshin!"

-oOo-

--TIME BREAK—

Outside of Camelot lay the Warlord siege line. Warlord Troopers were lined in ranks, ready for the order to attack. They had their spears, axes, swords, and other implements of death at the ready for what they thought would be their final charge on Camelot. At the back of the group were five Warlord Generals who were in charge of the siege in the absence of Lord Viper. One of the four was Warlord Blackwing who was next to Warlord Axe. The third in the line was Warlord Hammer, a muscle-bound fighter with red and gray armor who wore a cylindrical helmet with a skull-like face. Strapped to his arms were large steel hammers which could crush stone and steel with their weight and the power Hammer had at his disposal. Next was Warlord Spike who had bronze and gray armor with a bronze shield on his back. He wielded a staff with large blades on the end. His helmet was bronze with red around his black hollow eyes with blades rising from the top like horns. Finally was Warlord Bash who was donned in primitive gray and brown armor with a helmet which looked like an actual skull with red and yellow hair-like decoration. He wielded a giant club which looked like it was made of bone.

Warlord Hammer raised his hand, preparing to give the order to charge, however before he could actually give the order, the drawbridge dropped. It certainly confused the Warlords, some hoping that Camelot saw the futility of their struggle and decided to surrender. However, that thought died a very quick death when fourteen armoured individuals began riding out of the castle on horseback.

The leader of the group wore black armor which had gold lines accenting his chest while he wore a black bodysuit underneath. His left arm was covered in a black gauntlet which looked like a dragon's head with deadly red eyes. His helmet sported two red eyes covered by a horizontal grille with a black dragon emblem on the top of his head. Silver sockets were placed on his shoulders and kneels, as if he were meant to be locked into something He bore a silver belt with a black rectangular centre with a dragon's head in the middle. His name was Kamen Rider Ryuga, master of Dragblacker.

Following Ryuga was almost a complete double. His armor was styled the same, but with a red bodysuit with black and silver armor and a red dragon head gauntlet on his left arm. His helmet was the same as Ryuga's save for the differently styled dragon marking on the top. The centre of his belt was likewise different with a black surrounding with a gold dragon head in the middle. His name was Kamen Rider Ryuki and he was the one who tamed Dragredder, the polar opposite to Dragblacker.

Third was a Rider in a black bodysuit. His chest armor was this with yellow shark jaws motif in the centre. His shoulder pads stuck out like a shark's fin with dark blue stripes on them. Over his left arm was a large gauntlet which looked like a blue shark with a black head. His gauntlets and boots were the same color as his chest armor with silver sockets on his knees. He even wore blue thigh armor His helmet looked like that of a blue shark with a silver mouth guard which looked like a mouth with rectangular teeth and black slits to see through on his silver face. He was called Kamen Rider Abyss, the Rider who was officially contracted to two Mirror monsters, Abysshammer and Abyssslasher.

Next was a warrior who looked most like a knight. He was covered in a dark bodysuit which had sockets on his knees and shoulders. His chest armor was silver and segmented, giving an appearance of a bat. Strapped to his waist was a black rapier which had a bat-shaped guard which served as his card reader. His helmet was black with a silver visor styled after a knight's and the mouth guard had markings like fangs on it. His name was Kamen Rider Knight, the one who called Mirror Monster Darkwing his contract.

The following warrior was donned in a black bodysuit with an orange chest with a silver patch in the middle. His shoulders were styled to look similar to crab legs. On his left arm was a pair of shears which served as his main weapon. His helmet was plainly orange with a pair of dark eyes as a visor with a silver mouth guard. The top of his helmet was decorated with antennae similar to crab eye stalks complete with green tips. His name was Kamen Rider Scissors and his contract was Mirror Monster Volcancer.

The Rider who came next was a purple Kamen Rider whose armor was folded from his chest to back, creating the image of a cobra's hood with silver edges. His helmet was similarly styled with a silver face and six slits acting for a visor. The top of the helmet was purple with gold designs adding to it. Silver sockets which were in common with all the Riders were on his knees, forearms, and purple shoulder pads. In his hand was a staff tipped with a cobra motif which was in truth his Veno Visor. His name was Kamen Rider Ohja, the master of Venosnaker.

Next was a Rider who seemed more animalistic than the others. He wore a black bodysuit underneath white armor which was accented with blue stripes. His shoulder pads were styled like a tiger's claws, making him look fiercer. His helmet was mainly white with a blue back and slits acting as a visor. Accenting the sides of his helmet were protrusions which were similar to whiskers. His main weapon of choice was a battle axe with a tiger's head decorating the top of the handle usually known as the Dest Visor. He was Kamen Rider Tiger who was partnered with Destwilder.

Another Rider followed Tiger closely. Like the others he had a black bodysuit. His chest armor was a tanned brown with his gazelle symbol in the centre of his chest. White fur lined the sides where his arms were connected to his torso. His shoulder pads were brown and rounded, but had gold horns on each side. His helmet was mainly brown with a silver faceplate with numerous black slits acting as his visor. On either side of his helmet were two pairs of horns. Two of which were sticking into the air and two more on either side of his mouth guard. On his right knee was a gold gazelle-like skull which was his Gazelle Visor. He was Kamen Rider Imperer and his true contract was Gigazelle, but he had an army of Mirror Monsters at his beck and call.

Next was probably the most regal of the Riders. His armor was a royal crimson color with gold shoulder pads which stretched out like the wings of a phoenix. His chest armor was likewise accented with gold and had a black section just below his neck. His helmet was the royal crimson below the slits in his visor, but the rest was gold and arranged almost like a crown. Held almost regally in his hand, but not above being used as a weapon was an ornate staff which looked like a phoenix had been perched there with its wings closed. The Gold Visor was a powerful weapon in its own right. His name was Kamen Rider Odin, arguable one of the strongest Riders with his contract Goldpheonix.

The next Rider wore a green bodysuit over his body. He also wore thick steel armor which looked technologically advanced, especially in the time period they were in. It was box-like and bulky, but it didn't appear as if any sword could pierce it. Attaced to his belt was a green semi-automatic gun which served as his visor, the Magnu Visor. His helmet was green save for his visor which was silver and like his armor, technologically advanced. He was Kamen Rider Zolda, arguably the most destructive with his contract Magnugiga.

The Rider who came out next was one of the most colourful. It comprised of a black bodysuit with green chest armour which had red coils on it. His shoulder pads looked like green shields with red horns and silver sockets on them. His gauntlets and boots were likewise the vibrant green of the rest of his armour. Strapped to his left thigh was a chameleon head which was his Bio-Visor. His head was covered by a green helmet which had two large eye-like decorations which were connected by his black slit of a visor. His moth was covered by a silver mouth plate which had lines on it not unlike a reptile's underside. He was Kamen Rider Verde who was just as tricky as his contract, Biogreeza.

The next Rider was in a black bodysuit, but his chest armour was a shade of pink with gold accents on the sides. His shoulder pads were somewhat shell-like while his gauntlets and boots were the same color as his armor. On his left arm was a small shield shaped like a stingray which was called his Evil-Visor. His helmet was mainly silver on the front with six wave-like slits for him to see through. A barbed ponytail hung down from the back of his helmet as well, completing his look. Kamen Rider Raia clenched his fists, mentally prepared for the upcoming fight, remembering that his contract Evildiver was by his side.

The second last Rider had a black bodysuit as well. However, that was where similarities ended. His torso armour was gray and thick, giving a sense of strength with the bolts placed on them. His left shoulder was engulfed with a gray rhino snout complete with a pink horn extending from the tip. A black panel was on the front, revealing the section of armour as his Metal-Visor. His helmet was actually built onto his neck armour, bringing six straight slits to see through along with a sharp metal horn with a yellow stone embedded in it. Kamen Rider Gai was ready to play and couldn't wait to bring out his contract Metalgelas.

The last Rider to clear the drawbridge and definitely far from the weakest was Kamen Rider Femme. She wore a black bodysuit like the others with white torso armour which was decorated with swan-like wings across the front. She had gold on her shoulders and even a white cape which gave her some resemblance to Knight. Her visor was in a swan-themed rapier called a Blanc-Visor. Her helmet, like the rest of her armour, was white and had the same wing-like decorations as a visor with numerous slits to see through. Her armor reminded many of a swan, which was the form her contract Blancwing took.

The Riders charged from Camelot on their armoured steeds. Each one was shining in the sunlight with the respective color of their Riders. The Warlords were reasonably confused as to what they were seeing, Warlord Hammer voicing the thoughts of all of them, "What trick is this? Who are these knights?"

"Obviously mercenaries hired by Merlin," Warlord Blackwing sniffed. "The question is how did he get them? Our siege line lets nothing pass!"

"Bah! It matters not!" grunted Warlord Bash, gripping his club. "We'll crush them like bugs!"

"I agree!" Warlord Hammer laughed before he raised his arm. "Warlords! Attack!"

With a unanimous cry, the Warlords charged towards Camelot and its new defenders. All of them were ready to crush these fools who thought to challenge them. After all, they were an army of stone warriors. These fools were but fourteen flesh and blood humans. What chance did they stand against their obvious power?

"Here they come!" Ryuga frowned as he gripped the reins of his horse. "Imperer! Bring out our army!"

"You got it!" the gazelle Rider grinned. Reaching to his belt, he drew a card from his case before raising his leg where his Gazelle Visor was kept. Slipping the card into the chamber which appeared in the middle of the skull when his leg was bent, Imperer straightened his leg to allow the card to activate.

"_Advent!_"

In blurs of movement, numerous members of the Gazelle series of Mirror Monsters began to leap out of the reflective armor of the horses before beginning a charge towards the Warlords. Gigazelle, Negazelle, Omegazelle, and other breeds were all present as they started targeting the Warlords as their next enemies. Soon, the odds did not look so favourable for the Warlords as they did at first.

"What sorcery is this?!" cried Warlord Spike as he stabbed at a Gigazelle which leaped at him. Sparks flew from the impact, but the blade did not penetrate the monster's hide. The beast did groan in pain and stumble, proving that it was flesh and blood to an extent, but it wasn't beaten yet.

"Who cares?!" snapped Warlord Hammer. "Rip them to pieces!"

"Remember guys, they're just stone brought to life," Ryuga called to his allies while drawing a card. "Show no mercy!" Slipping the card into the chamber hidden underneath the brown of his gauntlet, the device called out, "_Sword Vent_!" Immediately, a black scimitar emerged from his steed's armor before landing in his hand.

"My favourite words!" Ohja laughed. Approaching several Warlord Troopers, he leaped from his horse in a flying tackle which connected and knocked the stone soldiers to the ground with a loud crash. Laughing, he kicked one on the head before dashing into the masses to fight more of them. "Come on! Come on! Try and kill me!" Ohja laughed like a maniac as he started to go wild. He rolled his neck around during short pauses before rushing at his opponents. He didn't have to hold back with these fiends as he fought barehanded.

"I'm so glad he's on our side right now," muttered Ryuki.

Zolda shot with precision at the Warlord Troopers, burying bullets in their stone hides. It wasn't enough to destroy them, but it certainly made them think twice about attacking since they were unsure of just what the heck his weapon was. Verde had summoned his Hold Vent and was striking Warlord Troopers before they could get close enough to use their weapons on him. Femme and Scissors both dismounted their steeds so to use their basic weapons more effectively, both striking down Warlords around them.

"Ngh!" Gai grunted, his thick armor managing to protect him from one of Warlord Hammer's heavy blows. "Hey! Watch it!"

"Your armor is thick," Warlord Hammer frowned. "However, it won't protect you from my blows forever!"

"Then I'll just have to take you down before that happens!" Gai laughed. Drawing a card, he tossed it into his Metal Visor before shutting it. "_Advent!_"

A loud cry rang out before a hunched over rhinocerous-like monster with thick gray metal skin and a gold horn suddenly emerged from the steel of Gai's horse. The beast lunged through the air and crashed into Warlord Hammer, knocking him off his horse before both crashed into the dirt. Metalgelas punched the Warlord several times as Hammer struggled to escape, smashing his hammers against the monster's hide.

"Feel free to eat him if you can!" Gai called to his monster as he rode into the battle.

Elsewhere, Warlord Blackwing and Knight were struggling as Blackwing stabbed at Knight with a staff tipped with an iron bird claw as Knight retaliated with his Dark-Visor. The bird-themed Warlord grunted as Knight's blade clashed against his staff with a rain of sparks.

"You're formidable on the ground, strange knight," Blackwing grunted as he spread his wings and leaped from his horse, taking to the air like an actual bird. "But can you fight me in the air?"

"With pleasure," Knight frowned, drawing a card. Opening the chamber hidden in the hand guard of his sword, he slipped one of his cards inside before shutting it. "_Advent!_" With a screech, the silver and black bat Darkwing emerged from the polished steel of Knight's horse before latching onto Knight's back. With wings of is own, Knight took to the air, much to Blackwing's shock as he managed to avoid a slash from Knight's blade.

"What?!" the Warlord cried out in shock.

"Surprise!" Knight smirked, diving down at Blackwing.

"Take this!!" Kamen Rider Tiger roared as he went axe to axe against Warlord Axe. Sparks flew from every impact as both fights used their weapons with powerful force.

"Your silly weapons can't beat mine!" Warlord Axe grunted as he took another swing at Tiger's head.

"Woah!" Tiger cried, ducking beneath the strike. "Better switch for my specialty!" He drew a card and put it into his Dest-Visor.

"_Strike Vent!"_

He put his axe away and his arms became covered in gauntlets with sharp claws on them. Axe blinked in surprise and hesitated with his next strike. It was more than enough for Tiger to capitalize on. Lunging, he stabbed Axe in the chest knocking him off of his horse and landing hard on the dirt. It would have knocked the wind out of anyone, but Warlords didn't have to breathe so he was able to get back up…after a minute or two so the world would stop spinning.

"Rah!" Warlord Bash roared as he knocked a Negazelle away with his club. "We must be facing sorcerers! No Knight has magic like this!"

"Worse, you're fighting Riders!"

Bash turned around as saw Ohja running towards him with his Veno-Visor out. Drawing a card, he opened his device and slipped the card inside before shutting it again, "_Final Vent!_"

From one of the nearby horses the Riders used, the giant purple armoured cobra Venosnaker appeared with a dangerous hiss. Slithering behind Ohja, both charged towards the primitive Warlord with a maniacal gleam in their eyes. Once they were close enough, Ohja leaped into the air and did a back-flip before landing on a rising Venosnaker's nose. Kicking off, Ohja began executing a bicycle kick as Venosnaker unleashed a spray of acidic venom. Warlord Bash's eyes widened in actual fright before Ohja's attack landed, knocking him into the air with several powerful kicks and being splashed by the venom. The Warlord screamed out as purple cracks spread through his body before he exploded in the air, showering everyone with pieces of stone. To Ohja's curiosity, an orb of red energy was left behind. He would have tried to examine it, but Venosnaker gobbled it up before making a pleased hiss.

"So you liked that eh?" asked Ohja with a grin. "Seems like these Warlords just went down a notch on the food chain!"

"They destroyed Warlord Bash!" cried Warlord Spike. "We ARE fighting sorcerers!"

"Kill them!" roared Warlord Hammer, finally free from Metalgelas. "Kill them all!"

"Don't count on it," Gai laughed, approaching on horseback with Metalgelas close behind. Reaching to his belt, he drew a card with his emblem on it. "Time to set the high score!" Tossing the card to the Metal Visor, he snapped it shut. "_Final Vent!_"

Metalgelos unleashed a bellow as he charged at Gai from behind. Gai's right arm was enveloped by the Metal Horn, a gauntlet shaped like a rhinoceros head with a sharp golden horn. He then leapt off the horse and landed upon Metalgelas' shoulders, standing horizontally on them. The two rushed at their target, energy shining from the tip of the Metal Horn that trailed behind them. Warlord Hammer didn't get a chance to move before the pair struck him, making him scream. The force of the blow sent him far through the ranks of Warlord Troopers and Gazelles. Hitting the dirt, he continued to scream as gray cracks of energy raced through his body before he exploded into rubble. Like Bash, a red core was left behind, but Metalgelas and Gai quickly approached as their attack ended before the Mirror Monster scooped up the core and swallowed it whole.

"Two-thousand points!" Gai whooped. "I'll make the high score in no time!"

"I don't believe this!" Warlord Blackwing cried from the sky, witnessing the destruction of two of his allies. "Warlords are meant to be indestructible!"

"Now you should know that nothing is invincible," Knight called out from above. Drawing a card, he slipped it into his Visor before shutting it and activating the card. "_Final Vent!_" Quickly, a slight shot up from the battlefield before solidifying into a black lance which Knight caught in his hands. Darkwing's wings then wrapped around Knight before both spun, turning into a drill which cut through the air. Warlord Blackwing yelled out in disbelief before the drill struck him, cutting off his flight and sending his sprawling to the ground. A hole was in the spot where Knight's attack struck him, but dark blue cracks spread from the point before the aerial Warlord exploded, leaving stones and a red core to fall through the air. Kamen Rider Knight could only hold on as Darkwing swooped in to swallow the core.

"Our forces are being cut down like cattle!" Warlord Axe grunted to his fellow general as both fought off Gazelles. In the distance, Warlord Troopers were being blown up by the handful thanks to Zolda's choice of firearms, namely his bazooka. "We won't be able to hold out much longer if this keeps up!"

"I know!" Warlord Spike agreed, kicking a Gigazelle away. Seeing no choice he signalled to the remaining Troopers. "Warlords! Full retreat!"

The Troopers couldn't be told quickly enough. They immediately turned tail and started running, a quarter of their troops and three generals destroyed. The survivors quickly made for the forest where they could hide out until they could regroup. The Gazelles didn't try to follow, more interested in the cores that the destroyed Troopers left behind. However, Ohja was more than eager to follow, making some of the Troopers run that much faster to escape him.

"Come back you cowards!" the cobra Rider shouted, watching the Warlords run. "Come back and fight like men!"

"They aren't men though," said Ryuki, meeting up with Ohja, still on his horse. "They're just hunks of rock brought to life."

"That's no excuse!" Ohja hissed.

"You'll get your chance to fight them again," Ryuga sighed, approaching the two Riders. "Remember, we're heading for their base, Morganna's castle so save the fight for them. Now get your horse. We have to keep moving."

Retrieving the horses for those who dismounted, all of the Riders began their journey into the woods. Castle Morganna wasn't too far away. It was easily reachable within a day. However, there was no telling what kind of defences the Warlords had set up along the way. While the Riders each had different reasons to don the armor, they all knew that they had to save Guinevere, stop Morganna, and rescue Arthur and his Knights or else they were never going to get home.

-oOo-

--TIME BREAK—

"WHAT?!" Lord Viper cried out in outrage as he received the report from Warlords Axe and Spike.

"It's true!" Spike cried. "Merlin has summoned battlemages to pit against us! They destroyed several of our troops and even Bash, Hammer, and Blackwing!"

The Warlords were camped out in a forest clearing which lay between Camelot and Castle Morganna. They had been taking their time returning to their home, feeling like basking in the glow of the previous victory. They even had Guinevere with them, her hands tied together as she sat on horseback, forced to follow Viper as they travelled. With them were three Warlords who were lucky enough to not be at Camelot when the Riders appeared. The first was Warlord Slasher who wore black and gray armor with metal studs on his shoulders, chest, and face, accented by the horns on his head. He wore a long purple cape which had blades along the edge to make for quite a weapon. The second was Warlord Blinder who was wearing bronze and gray armor. The bottom half of his helmet was bronze with holes assumedly for talking with axe-like horns on the sides of his head. His weapons of choice were a pair of dirks that when pressed together, would create a blinding flash. Last was Warlord Lucan who looked part animal with his brown-furred claw-like arms and his wolf-like helmet which had blue markings and yellow fur.

"What magic besides Merlin's could possibly destroy Warlords such as Bash, Hammer, and Blackwing?!" Viper demanded.

"We saw it with our own eyes!" Axe insisted. "They summoned strange beasts which our weapons could not cut and which devoured the magic cores that give our bodies life! They were destroying handfuls of Troopers every minute. We had to retreat or else our entire forces would have been destroyed!"

"They ride this way, no doubt to rescue Guinevere! We only managed to get ahead of them by riding through the River of Fire!" added Warlord Spike.

"Hmm," Viper frowned, trying to think of something which he could do to combat these apparent battlemages.

Guinevere only listened on with hope, feeling that Merlin had managed to find aid for Camelot and to rescue her from the entrapment which the Warlords had her in, "You would do well to surrender Viper," she spoke, not once abandoning her pride. "It seems these battlemages can easily destroy your Warlords. If you value your life you had best let me go."

"Bah, I do not fear these magicians!" Viper sneered at the queen. Gripping the rope which kept her bound, he tossed them to Warlord Axe. "Take her to Castle Morganna. The rest of us will go intercept these mages and shop them the true strength of the Warlords!"

Nodding as he took the reins, Axe headed in the direction of Castle Morganna with Guinevere forced to follow. As they passed by one of the more ancient trees of the forest however, the bark and leaves began to turn a royal crimson red…

-oOo-

--TIME BREAK—

"So…what's with the trees here anyway?" asked Verde as he and the other Riders came across yet another tree which was completely red. They had been finding several such trees since they had entered the forests which had been part of Camelot's territory.

"You think it's a marker of some kind that tells us where that Guinevere lady went?" asked Scissors.

"Might be," shrugged Ryuga. "Stories from King Arthur's era said that nature spirits often mingled with humans. Merlin was someone who could connect with them easily so hopefully they're on our side. We'll just have to trust the trees for the time being. So far we haven't been turned wrong."

"Bah, I just want to find those Warlords again," Ohja huffed. "The last fight was too short."

"Hey, against us the Warlords don't have a chance!" Abyss laughed.

TWACK!!

"Woah!" Ryuga cried as his horse reared back as a battle axe cut through the air and embedded itself in the red tree, returning it to normal. Looking around, he saw Warlord Troopers emerging from the bushes with weapons in hand. With them were three new Warlord Generals and one from the battle at Camelot. However, to the surprise of the Riders, a human was alongside them with a serrated sword and snake-like armor.

"Hey, that must be Lord Viper, the commander of the Warlords!" cried Zolda.

"Well, looks like we're not getting out of here without a fight," Ryuga frowned.

"Correction sorcerer, you're not getting out of here alive!" Viper sneered, raising his sword. "Warlords! Attack!"

"Bring it!" Ryuga growled, raising his own scimitar. "Let's ride!"

The battle was quickly joined as Warlords and Riders clashed once again. Warlord Slasher was fighting against Scissors while Warlord Blinder had picked Femme as his target. Warlord Lucan had picked out Tiger while Warlord Spike went against Imperer. The others were fighting off Warlord Troopers with what weapons they decided to use. Of course, Ohja seemed to be having the time of his life as he went against the troops unarmed.

"Yaaaah!" Viper roared as his blade met against Ryuga's in a shower of sparks.

"So you're Lord Viper eh?" Ryuga grunted as he and Viper pressed their blades together. "It'll be a pleasure taking you down!"

"Greater warriors than you have tried, boy!" Viper snarled before both separated for another charge.

"You haven't faced anyone like me before!" Ryuga cried as he went for another swing.

"It'll be a pleasure mounting your head on my wall in that case," Viper retorted as he and Ryuga began exchanging blows.

Abyss struck several Warlords with his Abyss Sabre, tearing chunks out of their stone hides. Behind him, Zolda was shooting several of them from afar with his Giga Launcher, destroying them where they stood. Tiger was battling Slasher, axe against cloak daggers, with sparks resulting from the crashes. Femme pressed on with her Blanc-Visor against Blinder who was holding her off with both of his dirks, but not pressing for an advantage yet. Turning, Abyss spied Scissors and Imperer clashing against Lucan and Spike.

-oOo-

"Woah!" Tiger yelped, dodging the strike from Slasher. "Nifty weapon you've got there."

"Perfect for dicing my opponents just the way I like!" Slasher cackled as he pressed onward. Tiger attempted another strike, but Slasher caught it with his thick shoulder armor before he swung his barbed cape with cut across Tiger's chest armor with a storm of sparks.

"Gah!" Tiger cried, stumbling backwards from the blow. The attack had left him off balance before he tumbled to the ground. Shaking his head to get the stars out, he looked up with a sinking feeling to see Slasher approaching him with his bladed cape at the ready. "Crud…"

-oOo-

"Hah!" Imperer kicked at Spike, trying to get him to back off so he could activate one of his own cards. However, the horned Warlord was keeping up the pace and sticking close so trying to use a card was out of the question at the moment. Imperer just had to curse his luck as he ducked underneath another swing of Spike's weapon. "Don't you ever quit?!"

"A Warlord never gives up!" Spike snapped.

"Then what was the big retreat about back at Camelot?" teased Imperer. Spear growled at the insult and charged again.

"Quiet you fool!" Spike raged, stabbing forward with all his fury in the attack. This time, the attack struck home, impacting the centre of Imperer's chest and making him cry out in pain before falling backwards. As he hit the ground, he heard a groan. Confused, dazed, and curious, he looked to the side to find Tiger's head not far from him. Apparently he had fallen over his ally, Tiger.

"Now, time to say goodbye!" Spike laughed as he and Slasher raised their weapons for a finishing blow.

That was when the ground gave out beneath the two Riders.

-oOo-

Hearing the voices of two of his comrades crying out, Ryuga's eyes turned to where he had heard them. To his horror, he saw Imperer and Tiger vanish into a hole which had suddenly appeared in the ground. Warlords Slasher and Spike were at the edges, laughing as they watched the two Riders disappear.

"Imperer! Tiger!" Ryuga cried out.

"Pay attention to the battle!" Viper laughed before he slammed his shoulder into Ryuga's side, knocking him clear off his horse. Hitting the ground, Ryuga growled as he looked up at the gloating Viper. "Two more guests in Castle Morganna it seems. I'm sure they'll keep Guinevere from being too lonely. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!" Laughing, Viper took off into the forest on horseback. The other Warlords took it as a signal and quickly vanished into the woods along with their leader.

"Dammit!" Knight growled, trying to follow, but finding no luck. "For a bunch of rocks these guys sure move fast."

"Yeah, when they run away," Odin sighed. "What happened to Tiger and Imperer?"

"They vanished down some hole," Ryuga sighed, pointing to the round hole in question. However, it was rapidly closing up as if a wound was healing and soon vanished. "Viper said they'd be at Castle Morganna which is lucky since that's where we're going."

"Then let's get a move on!" cried Ryuki. "You saw how nasty that place looked!"

"You heard the man," Ryuga frowned. "Let's ride!"

-oOo-

"Woooooaaaahhhh!"

"Waaaaaaaaaagh!"

Both Imperer and Tiger fell through what felt like a bottomless pit with walls of dirt and stone whizzing past them, unable to see the details. Both were scared and rightly so. However, both had forgotten one of the cardinal rules of this new world they were in: When dealing with magic, expect the unexpected.

The unexpected came in the form of a sudden bright light. Both Riders feel through it, fearing the worst, but instead met polished stone floors with a loud thud. Groaning, both Riders tried to get some idea of where they had ended up. In all, it appeared to be some kind of thrown room with stone walls carved in rather scary shapes. Ahead of them was a large throne with a stone dragon above it with its wings spread, being used as windows. However, they were surrounded by all sides by Warlord Troopers and sitting in the throne was who they assumed to be Morganna herself.

The witch did look like a noble lady to an extent. She wore a purple dress fit for a queen with a red cloak attached to her shoulders. Her hair was long and as black as night, but tied back in a ponytail. She wore large pieces of jewellery on her ears and as a headpiece, indicating that she was possibly vain with her appearance. In all, despite her good looks, she appeared to be just as evil as Merlin had described.

"So these are two of the battlemages Warlord Axe told me about," the evil woman smirked. "I wonder what secret magics you have which I can use in my quest to conquer Camelot."

"We have nothing for you lady!" Tiger growled before he lifted up his axe and charged for the evil lady with it raised high. "Hraaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!"

"Hmph!" Morganna frowned, crossing her hands. As she did, a blast of red energy extended from her body before striking tiger in the chest and sending him sailing backwards, crashing into Imperer, knocking both Riders to the ground again. Smirking, she stood up, "You attacked a sorceress of my calibre head on in my own throne room. You didn't even try to catch me off guard. I must say you are a brave warrior, but also a fool." Chuckling, she waved to her Warlord Troopers. "Take them to the dungeon. I'm sure Guinevere will enjoy the company."

The Warlord Troopers obeyed, hefting Tiger and Imperer by the arms and dragging them out of Morganna's throne room as the witch watched in amusement. She looked forward to learning the secrets to their magic.

-oOo-

It had taken the Riders a few hours, but they finally managed to reach Castle Morganna. The land around it was rocky and with only the very rare piece of vegetation to color the dark and rocky area. At the moment, all of the Riders were on a cliff overlooking the nightmarish castle. They had left their horses several feet back so any guards wouldn't be able to see them from whatever windows were in the tower. The only one who could have spotted them was Warlord Blackwing and Knight had destroyed him already.

"Well, we made it," Ryuki commented.

"The question is: how do we get in?" asked Zolda.

"Good question," admitted Ryuga before he looked to his friend, the stingray Rider. "Any predictions which might come in handy Raia?"

"I haven't seen anything since before we left the castle," Raia replied.

"So we're stuck then," frowned Odin.

'_Far from it Sir Odin,_' the voice of Merlin suddenly spoke in the minds of the Riders, stunning all of them. However, they were not able to ask any questions before Merlin continued. '_There is a secret way into Morganna's castle. It is at the base on the far side. However, it is blocked by a large boulder. It will take the strength of a hundred men to move it._'

"A hundred men huh?" Gai grinned. "Well, I think we have that covered. We have some tricks up our sleeves."

'_Good,_' Merlin replied. '_That path will take you right past the dungeons. It is there that Guinevere and your friends are being kept._'

"Okay," Ryuga nodded as Merlin's presence faded. "Gai, Zolda, you're both with me. Everyone else hang back. If a Warlord spots you then make sure the battle's big so they're distracted while we get the queen and the others back."

"Oh goodie, more fighting," Ohja snickered. "I knew taking this job was a great idea.

"Just save it for if or when you get spotted Ohja," Ryuga sighed as he, Gai, and Zolda began to travel to the opposite side of Castle Morganna.

-oOo-

After being dragged down a few sets of stairs, both Tiger and Imperer were unceremoniously thrown into one of the cells which populated the lower levels of the nightmarish castle. Both Riders landed with pained groans on the floor as the Warlord Troopers shut the cell and locked it. With both Riders locked in, the Warlord Troopers left the room, leaving the prisoners by themselves.

The dungeon itself was sparse with little to decorate it. Like the rest of Morganna's castle, the walls were made of solid stone. The bars to their prisons were made of wood which was too thick to cut with an ordinary blade and definitely impossible to break with ones bare hands. On one side was the tunnel which lead to the main corridors of the castle while on the other side was a deep pool of water which was probably used to get water for thirsty prisoners. Off beside the Riders' cell, Tiger's axe was leaning against the wall, just out of reach.

"Great idea you had there Tiger," Imperer groaned. "Attack the super powerful witch. I'm sure that one will be one for the books."

"Hey, at least I didn't go quietly as a prisoner," Tiger retorted. "Why didn't you summon the Gigazelle and his friends to help?"

"When we're in the same room as the super witch who could probably turn them and us into toads? I don't think so," Imperer answered.

"Whatever," Tiger grumbled, sitting away from his fellow Rider. "Any ideas how we get out of this?"

"Well..." Imperer began.

"Hello? Who's there?" a soft female voice asked from across the room.

Both Riders turned to the source, walking to the bars of their cell so they could see who was trying to talk to them. Peering through the bars, they saw someone was indeed in the cell across from them. From what they could see, it was a woman with long red hair and wearing a green dress. Even more surprising was the fact that she was wearing a crown. In fact, both Riders easily recognized her from what Merlin had showed them back at the castle!

"Hey, you're Queen Guinevere!" gasped Imperer. "Queen of Camelot!"

"Yes, I am," the lady answered, slightly startled by the appearance of the strange prisoner. She had half-feared they were Warlords, but judging from their actions, they could not be. "You know of me?"

"Heck yeah!" Tiger nodded. "Merlin had asked us and our friends to rescue you! They're coming here right now to break you out!"

"They are?" Guinevere asked with rising hope in her voice. "How many of you are there?"

"Besides us, twelve," Imperer answered. "But I don't plan to wait here for them. I have an idea which can get us all out of here if we can get the stuff we need."

"So you do have a plan!" Guinevere smiled. "Pray tell, what is it?"

"First of all, is there anything in your cell lets you see yourself in it? Glass, water, anything?" asked Imperer.

"Umm," Guinevere stalled, checking her rather sparse cell for anything which may have cast her reflection in it. After a moment, she found something. "There is! A bucket filled with water the Warlords gave me in case I was thirsty. I suppose a dead hostage is of no use to them."

"Right," Imperer nodded. Turning to Tiger, he continued. "Okay, let's see if we can find the same." The two Riders made for a quick search and indeed find a bucket used to hold water for thirsty prisoners. The water was shallow, but it was enough to cast a reflection, making Imperer grin. "Perfect."

"Looks like we just found our way out," said Tiger, smiling under his helmet.

"Just be patient your majesty!" Imperer called to Guinevere. "We'll be right over to get you out!"

"Please hurry!" the worried queen pleaded. "I do not know how much more of this foul place I can bear."

-oOo-

"Okay, this is the place according to Merlin," Ryuga sighed as he, Zolda, and Gai approached a large boulder which as at the bottom of a deep canyon. The three Riders had to travel along the shores of the desolate land before they could find the place. They almost had been caught by Warlord Trooper patrols twice in their short trip. Zolde and Gai had also brought sections of their steeds' armor as Ryuga requested.

"So how do we move this thing?" asked Zolda. "Merlin said we'd need a hundred men to do it."

"Why would we need a hundred men when we have some of the strongest Mirror Monsters?" asked Gai as he dropped his section of armor. Reaching to his belt, he drew his contract card. Realizing the train of thought, Zolda set his section of polished steel onto the ground before drawing his own contract. Both riders quickly inserted the cards into their respective Visors and activated them.

"_Advent!_"

Metalgelas bellowed and reappeared in the human world through Gai's section of steel. At the same time, a hulking metal bull-man covered in green and silver armor with guns for arms, a broad metal chest, and large golden horns appeared from Zolda's steel piece. The monster was known as Magnugiga, the most destructive out of all Mirror Monsters. Both monsters gave out individual growls as they waited for orders from their contractors.

"Okay guys," Gai spoke, getting their attention. "We need to get that giant boulder moved so we can get inside the castle. Are you up to it?"

"Don't let me down Magnugiga," Zolda spoke seriously.

With grunts, both monsters approached the boulder and began pushing against one side of it with all of their might. At first, it appeared as if they weren't strong enough. However, the giant boulder trembled with dust falling from its crevices. With louder growling, both monsters pushed even more effort into moving the hunk of rock, causing the massive rock to begin sliding and proving Merlin's advice true as a tunnel was found behind the boulder with torches lighting the way. After the gap was wide enough, Gai and Zolda snapped their fingers to stop their contracts. With grunts of satisfaction, both monsters returned to their contractors before vanishing into the strips of armor again.

"Next time I saw we just blow the thing up," Zolda sighed.

"Maybe if we want to be obvious," Ryuga muttered. "Now come on. I want to get Imperer, Tiger, and Guinevere out of there before the Warlords decide to interrogate them…or worse."

"Then let's go already!" Gai cried, already heading for the doorway. "We'll get high scores if we do this!" With sighs, Zolda and Ryuga both followed.

"I bet he thinks this is like some sort of fantasy RPG," said Zolda.

"I have no doubt about it," replied Ryuga.

-oOo-

"Here goes nothing," Imperer sight, raising his foot and lowering it into the bucket where the water cast a reflection. At first Imperer feared that nothing would happen, but when his foot neared the water's surface, silver light flashed from it and he was suddenly drawn inside of the water's reflection.

"Well, it works," Tiger grinned, reading to dive for the bucket himself.

"Oh my word!" Guinevere gasped in shock.

Seeing his ally's plan was successful, Tiger dove for the water bucket himself. Like Imperer before him, the water's surface flashed silver before the feline Kamen Rider vanished within it. Guinevere was surprised to see both warriors vanish into something so small, but had remembered Merlin being capable of numerous fantastic feats thanks to his magic. The good queen waited with baited breath for something new to happen. Her patience proved to be rewarded when she heard a strange noise at the back of the cell. Turning, she witnessed the warrior calling himself Imperer appear from the bucket of water.

"I hope I wasn't too long your majesty," she heard the warrior speak, a grin in your voice.

"Not at all," Guinevere smiled. "However I do not wish to delay leaving this place a moment longer."

"Then with your permission Milady," Imperer smiled as he scooped up Guinevere in is arms. She gasped slightly, but did not fight him. Heading back to the bucket, jumped into the water's surface. Guinevere gasped as she felt a strange pulling sensation as she and the warrior vanished into the reflection in the water. Her eyes then opened in wonder as they appeared in a long tunnel made from crystal which shone beautifully. They had appeared on one end of the tunnel before Imperer carried her to the other side, passing through the crystal wall again before emerging again from a bucket of water to see…her cell?

"Sir Imperer, are we not in my cell?" she asked, seeing the familiar back wall and cot she had bee supplied with.

"Not quite," Imperer answered. Turning around with the queen in his arms, both viewed where the bars to the cell had been, only to see that the wooden bars had been destroyed, allowing full entry. "We are in a world beyond the looking glass. It is here Tiger and I traveled through to reach your cell. Now that you're free, we can get the heck out of here."

Walking out of the cell, both Imperer and Guinevere spied Tiger waiting at the edge of the pool of water in the back of the dungeon. Seeing that the queen was in hand, Tiger jumped into the pool of water, vanishing in silver light. Imperer didn't need a royal order from Guinevere to follow as he took a leap for the water himself. For a second time, Guinevere entered the crystal tunnel before re-emerging from the pool of water in the realm she began in, finding the bars to her cell to be quite solid and not broken like she had seen in that other world.

"Well, here we are," Imperer smiled, setting the royal lady down. "We're out of the cells and free to go."

"Yeah, now let's get out of here," Tiger sighed from the doorway to the Riders' cell, picking up his axe. "I don't want the Warlords to know we're free just yet."

"Oh, too late for that!"

Tiger and Imperer's attention snapped towards the stairway exit to see Warlord Spike approaching with his staff in hand and ready to use. A splashing noise from behind alerted the Riders to Warlord Lucan leaping out of the water. As he landed, the claws on his right hand extended, appearing to be as sharp as razors. Tiger raised his axe, ready to defend the queen, while Imperer took a ready stance, just spoiling for a fight.

"Just how did you guys find out?" demanded Imperer.

"The dungeon is a spacious place for a reason," Spike snickered. "Voices carry up the stairs quite well. I heard you speak with Guinevere the whole time. Now, you can do this the easy way and return to your cells, or you can do this the hard way and fight a losing battle."

"I think we'll go with the third option and kick both your asses before taking Guinevere from this place," Tiger growled, clutching his axe.

"You can try!" Lucan snarled. "Prepare yourself battlemage!"

"And we will!" said Imperer as he slid his card into his Giga-Visor.

"_Spin Vent!_"

The twin-drilled gauntlet appeared and attached to his right arm. The drills, which resembled the horns of his Gigazelle, spun as Imperer went into a Muay Thai stance. The two Warlords charged but their movements would be halted soon enough.

"_Freeze Vent!_"

Warlords Lucan and Spike suddenly froze, their bodies refusing to comply with them as they were slowly encased in ice. Imperer blinked as he turned back to look at Tiger who lowered his axe, having just activated one of his unique cards. One that no other Rider had. The feline Rider noticed his comrade glancing at him and spoke, "Our mission is to rescue Queen Guinevere, not make fools of the Warlords. We can do that after she's safe back in Camelot."

"Good point," Imperer sighed, but not before punching Spike in the face and knocking him over. "Let's get a move on then. If all goes well we'll have her majesty back in Camelot before nightfall."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea to me brave knights," Guinevere smiled.

"Then we'll make it so," Tiger nodded. "Let's go."

-oOo-

"Their magic is indeed formidable, to simply stop two of my most powerful Warlords with just one spell," Morganna frowned as she watched the Riders and the queen with her Viewing Rock, a large hunk of ruby which was the size of a curled up adult. It allowed Morganna to view her enemies anywhere save for Camelot where Merlin's magic obscured its scrying power. In her castle though, its sight was the strongest. She had been spying on the Riders to see just what kind of magic they possessed that could destroy her Warlords so easily. "Also how they escaped the cells is curious as well."

"It seems I have underestimated these mages," Viper admitted grudgingly. "Obviously they allowed themselves to be captured so that they could snatch Guinevere from our clutches!"

"Yes. Merlin chose his allies well. Facing them at less than our full strength would be a folly," Morganna agreed. Ending the image on her Viewing Rock, she stepped into the middle of her throne room before crossing her arms, invoking her magic.

Magical streams of energy shot across the room, striking the stone walls with practiced ease. The streams existed for only a moment, but it was all the time they need. Rumbling started from the stone walls before boulders easily the size of men slithered out as if the stone were made of water. The three rocks glided across the room before settling down in front of Morganna. The witch then sent another blast of magic energy into the three rocks, which promptly began carving themselves into new forms. The pieces which were chiselled off fell to the floor and we reabsorbed by the castle as if it were feeding. Soon, the three boulders had been transformed into stone statues of Warlords Hammer, Bash, and Blackwing. Muttering to herself, Morganna produced three red orbs of power which she sank into the chests of the three statues. The magic immediately took effect, turning the statues into the true Warlords Bash, Hammer, and Blackwing.

"What happened?!" Bash demanded, looking around.

"Where are we?" asked Hammer with confusion.

"Your bodies were destroyed," Morganna frowned, catching the Warlords' attention. "Shattered by these battlemages which Merlin had summoned to aid him."

"I remember now," Blackwing hissed with anger. "I was fighting one of them when he used a spell to strike me down!"

"Well don't let it happen again!" Morganna hissed making the three revived Warlords flinch. "I will not have my mighty Warlords made to look like fools! Now, two of these sorcerers are with Guinevere in the lower levels. Take a contingent of Warlords and find them! Defeat is not an option!"

"Yes my lady!" the three Warlords and Viper nodded before dashing from the room, preparing for battle.

-oOo-

Gai gladly led the way as Ryuga and Zolda followed. The rhino Rider had elected himself leader of their 'party' as they were on a 'quest' to rescue Queen Guinevere and the kingdom of Camelot. Zolda and Ryga simply humoured him. Gai, while he thought life as a game, cold be dependable when there was a goal and huge rewards at the end. In this case, the rewards probably couldn't be any greater than what Guinevere might see fit to reward them with. Both rhino and bull Riders had brought the reflective armor with them in case they needed to use their weapons or abilities and in the Warlords' home turf, it was almost a guarantee.

"The dungeon should be somewhere along this hallway," Ryuga commented as he kept his eyes trained on the creepy hallway walls. "Merlin did say we'd find the prisoners there."

"Hopefully they didn't do anything to Guinevere," Zolda added.

"Yeah, otherwise we'd lose bonus points," Gai agreed, making the other two Riders sigh.

The three Riders travelled deeper into the castle, searching for their goal. However, the hallway was a twisted maze and it was hard to tell of there was any end in sight. It just appeared to go on and on and on. Still, they trekked on, hoping to find the way to the dungeons that Merlin had pointed out. It was really all they could do since there was no turning back at this point. Not when they were so close. As they went deeper, they began hearing voices.

"Shh!" Ryugi whispered, pressing himself against the wall, his allies following suit.

"Warlords?" asked Zolda.

"Maybe," Ryuga frowned.

The voices grew louder as the owners approached. However the echoes were distorting them slightly, making it hard to tell who the owners were. Still, it sounded like two males and one female. Could it be two Warlords and Morganna herself. Mentally, prepping themselves, the three Riders tensed and the voices came even closer. Soon, it seemed like they were only a few steps away. Quickly reacting, the three Riders leaped from their hiding place, ready to beat down whoever had approached, "Yaaaaahhhhhhh!"

"Woah!"

"Look out!"

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

Ryuga, Gai, and Zolda came to a very sudden halt when they didn't see Warlords and Morganna, but their missing friends Tiger and Imperer along with a woman with long red hair whom they assumed to be the missing Guinevere. The two Riders were prepared to attack and Guinevere looked very startled as she watched the three new Riders with wide eyes. Needless to say, it was a really awkward moment.

"Nice way to greet your friends!" snapped Imperer. "You scared the crap out of me!"

"We thought you were Warlords!" defended Ryuga. Sighing, he rubbed the back of his neck before glancing at the startled redhead. "Is this who I think it is?"

"Yep," Tiger snickered. "Gentlemen, we are proud to introduce Queen Guinevere of Camelot, the very same woman Merlin brought us to rescue."

"My, such an honour it is my lady," Zolda bowed respectfully. "I hope we did not frighten you too badly."

"My nerves are not what they should be after a day such as today," Guinevere sighed, a hand at her heart to slow it down. "I only wish to return home to Camelot where I can be with my cherished friends."

"Then we'll be the ones to take you there," Ryuga nodded. "Come on, we better get out of here before actual Warlords come."

"It's too late for that battlemages."

"Just great…" Tiger grumbled. He along with the other Riders and Guinevere turned to the source of the voice. To their dismay, it belonged to Lord Viper and his Warlords. Among them were Spike, Slasher, Blinder, and Lucan. Surprisingly, Warlords Hammer, Blackwing, and Bash were with them as well.

"Hey, didn't I waste you?" asked Gai as he spotted Hammer in the group of Warlords.

"Ha! Lady Morganna's brought me back," Hammer snorted. "Destroying my body is but an inconvenience!"

"Hey, that means I can get even more points!" Gai grinned.

"This is no time for games!" Ryuga snapped. "We have to get Guinevere away from these guys!"

"Allow me then," Zolda volunteered. Drawing a card, he opened the hidden chamber on his Magnu-Visor before slipping his card inside and shutting it again. "_Shoot Vent!_" was heard before a large bazooka which looked like it was made from the arms of Magnugiga appeared out of the reflective armor fragment Zolda carried. The gun-wielding Rider easily caught it before taking aim at the enemies which were swiftly approaching. Aiming high, he fired off a round which exploded against the ceiling of the hallway, causing a loud explosion which caused the roof to cave in. Viper and the Warlords quickly began retreating so not to be crushed by the rubble. The Riders on the other hand, saw an opportunity.

"Let's go!" Ryuga barked, him and the other Riders quickly forming a circle around Guinevere as they headed back towards the secret tunnel.

Meanwhile, Viper and the other Warlords were shrugging the rubble and dust from their bodies, finding themselves blocked. Growling, Viper began barking orders, "All of you up to the castle gates! If we hurry we can catch up to them outside! Go!" The Warlords quickly obeyed as they started running down the hallways.

Back with the Riders, they had reached thee underground caverns which made up the secret entrance to Morganna's castle. They didn't stop running despite the distance they had managed to put between themselves and the Warlords. No doubt they knew about the secret entrance too and were racing to cut them off. If they were going to escape, they were going to have to move fast. In short time, they managed to reach the exit and no Warlords were in sight, meaning they still had some time before any fights started.

"We don't have time to go around like we did coming in," Ryuga sighed. "We'll have to climb out of this canyon and fast!"

"But how?" asked Tiger. "Only Knight could do that and he's with the others."

"With a little help," drawing his contract card, he opened his Black Drag-Visor and slipped the card inside before shutting it again, "_Advent!_" Gai's reflective armor piece flashed before the black armoured serpentine dragon Dragblacker emerged with a powerful roar. Guinevere gasped in awe and a little fright as she saw the black dragon swoop in low before sliding alongside the Riders. Mounting the spot just behind Dragblacker's head, Ryuga gestured to the others, "All aboard."

The other Riders and Guinevere quickly took seats along Dragblacker's back. Once everyone was aboard, Dragblacker roared before taking flight. Soaring through the air, he aimed for the top of the canyon with as much speed as his contractor could stand. Soaring past the jagged cliffs, Dragblacker emerged from the mouth of the canyon before swooping low to the ground again, allowing Ryuga and the others to dismount.

"Thanks Dragblacker," Ryuga nodded. "I'll let you eat some Warlords next time we fight them." He chuckled slightly as Dragblacker made a pleased roar before diving back into the piece of reflective steel Gai kept strapped to his back. "Okay, let's meet up with the others and head back to Camelot. I'm sure everyone will be happy to see Lady Guinevere again."

"HALT!"

"Oh you've got to be kidding!" Tiger gaped as Viper and his Warlords appeared from behind a row of stone spires on horseback, their weapons raised and ready for blood, "Are you sure these guys are made of stone and not lightning or something? Rocks shouldn't be able to move that fast!"

"Well, they are on horseback," offered Imperer weakly.

"Who cares what they're made of?" asked Ryuga. "Draw weapons! Defend the queen at all costs! We came here to rescue her and that's what we're going to do!"

"_Sword Vent!_" the Black Drag Sabre appeared in Ryuga's hand.

"_Strike Vent!_" the Giga Horns, a gauntlet with gold horns from Magnugiga's head appeared in Zolda's hand.

"_Strike Vent!_" the Metal Horn, a metal gauntlet which looked like the top of Metalgelas' head complete with a pointed gold horn appeared in Gai's hand.

"_Strike Vent!_" the Dest Claws appeared over Tiger's arms.

"_Spin Vent!_" the Gazelle Stab weapon appeared on Imperer's arm.

"Let's take it to them!" Ryuga roared. The others roared as well as they charged at the Warlords.

The Warlords had an advantage since they were on horseback and thus had some leverage on their side. However, the Riders were more agile thanks to being on their own two feet and able to go around the horses as they struggled to move under the Warlords' commands. Swerving around the cloak of Warlord Slasher, Tiger stabbed him in the chest, knocking him off of his horse. Lucan fired the claws of his left arm at the Riders, but with the horse panicking in the chaos, his aim wasn't what it should have been, and missed. Seeing him as a threat, Ryuga grabbed him by his arm and yanked him off of his steed, throwing him into the dirt. Soon, the Warlords began dismounting, finding that the advantage they had wasn't as helpful as they hoped.

"Yaahhhh!" Viper cried, his sword clashing against Ryuga's with rain of sparks. "You're beginning to annoy me boy!"

"Really? Just an annoyance?" asked Ryuga as he backed away. "Then I'm not doing my job!"

-oOo-

"Payback time Warlord!" Tiger growled, as he lunged at Slasher. "You won't get me a second time!"

"Believe what you want! It won't change the fact that I will be the one who is victorious today!" Slasher gloated, swinging widely with his bladed cloak, causing Tiger to defend himself with his Dest Claws. Grunting from the surprising force behind the blows, Tiger pressed forward, tackling Slasher and disrupting his pattern of attacks. Inside Slasher's guard, Tiger unleashed a slash across the Warlord's chest which left gouges in his armor, causing Slasher to stumble back in shock.

"You caught me off guard once, but not again!" Tiger frowned before he lunged. "Take this!" Another tackle sent Slasher sprawling into a boulder, causing him to lose his senses for a moment. Still, it was enough for Tiger. Dismissing his claws, he brought out his Dest-Visor before drawing a card. Pushing the handle at the bottom of the blade, the tiger motif near the axe blade opened, allowing Tiger to slip his card inside before closing it.

"_Final Vent!_"

A feline roar came from the nearby pieces of reflective steel which Zolda and Gai dropped before the battle began. Emerging from it was a white tiger-like monster which was humanoid but wore armor instead of being covered in fur. The beast, Destwilder, pounced through the battlefield before descending on Slasher. Slapping him with his paw, the Mirror Monster began dragging the Warlord towards Tiger, whose claws had reappeared again. Slasher cried out and attempted to swat Destwilder away, but there was no force behind his attacks since the bladed cloak was underneath his body. Coming upon Tiger, the Kamen Rider swung his claws from beneath, catching Slasher's back and digging themselves into his stone hide. With a growl, he hefted Slasher into the air as icy blue cracks spread out from the point the claws dug in.

"Gyaaahhhhhhh!" Slasher screamed out before his body exploded into rubble, pelting Warlord and Rider alike. All that remained was the red magical core and Destwilder snapped that up like a regular cat did tuna.

"Hope you're not full," remarked Tiger. "There are still some more main courses for you."

Destwilder roared happily.

-oOo-

Warlord Spike stabbed at Imperer, aiming to get back at him for the insult in the forest, but his weapon was blocked by the Gazelle Stab. Twisting around the weapon, Imperer kicked at Spike's side, knocking the Warlord off balance and causing him to stumble. Grunting, the Warlord swung wide, aiming to relieve Imperer's body of his head. Imperer had the common sense to dodge before lunging forward, tackling Spike to the ground. Spike dropped his weapon, pushing at Imperer's shoulders to gain leverage with one hand as he struggled to get his other hand around Imperer's throat.

"Watch where you're grabbing!" Imperer grumbled, dropping a knee into Spike's stomach, sufficiently stunning the Warlord and allowing the gazelle Rider to get away. Spike was immediately scrambling to get to his feet and grab his weapon, giving Imperer time to finish his fight and get a little payback on the Warlord after their last fight. Drawing a card from his belt, he raised his leg before inserting the card into his knee-mounted Giga-Visor.

"_Final Vent!_"

The joined battlefield of seven Warlords, their commander, and five Kamen Riders suddenly became much bigger when a mob of Mirror Monsters of the Gazelle subtype emerged from the pieces of armor Gai and Zolda brought out and began to charge. They pointedly ignored the other combatants, but shoved Warlords Blinder and Axe out of the way as they raced for their master and Spike. The horned Warlord could only gape as the Mirror Monsters charged at him. He raised his weapon to defend himself, but against such numbers it didn't make much of a difference. The numerous Gazelles charged at him, punching and kicking him with gusto as they charged past. Some flipped over him, dealing kicks to his back while others did quick punches, making him see stars. Trying to see if more were coming so he could time strikes, Spike was met with Imperer charging towards him. The horned Kamen Rider moved with speed like his contracts before he grabbed Spike's head and used a powerful knee strike to strike the Warlord's face in a Muay Thai attack.

"Hyaaah!" Imperer bellowed, putting all the force he collected in his momentum into the attack.

Spike's head launched backwards as his body flew from the impact. Hitting the ground, brown energy began to leave cracks in his body before he reached critical mass in an explosion which sent rock chards in all directions. Imperer watched as the magic core appeared in the epicentre, but he didn't get to see it long before Gigazelle and the others began piling on top of it. Once the whole group was on top of the core, they all flashed, signalling that each of them at least got something out of it. However, Gigazelle just looked pleadingly at Imperer, as if asking for more.

"Hey, don't give me that look," Imperer laughed. "There are more Warlords where he came from!"

Gigazelle informed its brethren who all cheered in their own language before returning to the Mirror World. Imperer sighed. He just had to be the one with an entire herd. It was hard enough to manage with just Gigazelle but due to their herd mentality, wherever Gigazelle went, the others followed.

**-oOo-**

Guinevere watched as the five knights who Merlin charged with rescuing her battled with the Warlords. Despite two of their number destroying two Warlords, the battle was still quite even. The black knight was fighting Lord Viper and faring rather well. Both the green and silver knights were forming a protective wall, blocking off the Warlords' attempts at capturing her again. Both the white knight with the cat-like creature and the brown knight were returning with their familiars behind them, aiming to take the fight to the Warlords again. Numbers were quickly turning in the knights' favour with so many wild creatures assisting them. She could only pray for victory and a safe journey home

Suddenly, a shadow passed overhead, making Guinevere look up. Her eyes widened as her pupils shrank in horror. Above her Warlord Blackwing began to swoop for a quick grab, aiming to capture Guinevere for Morganna once again. She could hear the flying Warlord chuckling as he came in closer, "No one escapes Castle Morganna!"

"Noooo!" The terrified queen cried, backing away in the futile hope that she could avoid Blackwing's attack.

"_Strike Vent!_"

Blackwing was blindsided by a bright orange fireball which seemed to come out of nowhere. Crying out in possible fear (since heat was able to destroy stone if it was hot enough) Blackwing dropped like the stone he was made of, desperate to smother the flames which had taken hold of his body. Hitting the dirt ground, he rolled several times to smother the flames, sighing in relief as the flames did just that. Guinevere just watched in shock, as did the other Warlords, before turning to see where the fireball had come from.

"CHAAAARRRGE!"

Several strange-clad knights were charging towards the battle on horseback. No doubt they were the ones who her rescuers said had come to assist them. They were dressed in rather colourful armor and each suit was rather different from the others. Still, she could tell that these were the ones who would help rescue her. Relief was already flooding her heart. Now she knew that she would be able to return to Camelot by the end of the night.

**-oOo-**

"Yah!" Ryuga cried, kicking Viper away so he could get some breathing space. He watched in satisfaction as the remaining Riders convened on the area, their weapons drawn and ready for a fight Gai, Zolda, Tiger, and Imperer quickly met up with them as the new arrivals began to dismount and face off against the remaining Warlords.

"Hey, didn't I kill you once already?" asked Ohja, pointing at Bash.

"Morganna's apparently able to bring them back after we destroy them," Zolda reported.

"Then we just have to break them all over again," said Gai. "Zolda, would you please do the honors?"

"Gladly," Zolda nodded, drawing a card before sliding it into his Magnu-Visor.

"_Final Vent!_"

Another Mirror Monster emerged from the reflective horse armor from nearby. This time it was the hulking Magnugiga which entered the world. Stomping across the barren ground, Magnugiga positioned himself in front of Zolda, raising his arms. Zolda just calmly inserted his Magnu-Visor into a hollow in Magnugiga's back. The large Mirror Monster then seemed to groan and hidden panels and cannons began to reveal themselves on his body. Cannons from his shins, his chest opening to reveal missiles and even a laser on his head came to life.

"Bye-bye!" Zolda waved at the gaping Warlords…and then pulled the trigger.

"BOOOOOOM!!!"

"AAAAAAHHH!!"

Magnugiga unleashed a veritable firestorm of lasers, bullets, and missiles. The Warlords didn't have a chance of getting away before the first wave of missiles struck, launching them in all directions. Viper could be seen sailing into the distance, skidding along the dirt. His Warlords were sent flying in all directions. Warlords Blinder, Lucan, and Axe had been standing next to Viper and thus the closest to centre all flew through the air with green cracks running through their bodies before they exploded. Blackwing, Bash, and Hammer were lucky enough to have been sent flying by the shockwaves of the attack and thus survived, but they were on the ground, groaning as the funny lights refused to leave their eyes so they could see the funny birds spinning around their heads.

"Well, that should about do it," Zolda nodded. Magnugiga gave off an echoing bellow as he stomped towards the remains of the three Warlords, his eyes on the three magic cores which had given their stone bodies life.

"Enemies defeated, wanton destruction, and a rescued queen," Ryuga observed. "I think our work here is done. Let's head back to Camelot. No doubt Merlin and the people will be very relieved to see that their queen is home again safe and sound."

"I agree wholeheartedly," Guinevere smiled. "After a day such as today, I yearn for my home of Camelot."

"You heard her majesty," Ryuki grinned. "Let's ride!"

The Riders quickly mounted their horses with Ryuga lifting Guinevere to ride side saddle with him. With a gesture of his hands, the Riders began to ride away from Castle Morganna and the downed Warlords who still hadn't gotten their senses back. After seeing the nightmarish castle, Camelot would be a welcome change.

* * *

With the return of Guinevere, the kingdom of Camelot celebrated. Despite the loss of their king and his loyal knights, they now had new champions to defend their kingdom against the threat of Morganna. Having so little to celebrate since the day Arthur and his knights were captured by Morganna, the people were more than ready to feel good about something. A feast was quickly made to honor the brave heroes who rescued the queen and everyone ate heartily, most of them had never had such food before and were more than eager to dig in. The feasting and celebrations went well into the night before everyone went to bed somewhat loopy from wine and good food.

The day after, Queen Guinevere called for the Riders to appear in the throne room in full armor. Slightly confused, the Riders made their appearance. The throne room was lined with the people of Camelot each of them seemingly finding some good news which hadn't reached the Kamen Riders. Still, the approached the Queen, dressed in her usual green dress with her crown perched regally on her head. In her hands was a sword with a golden hilt and a red handle which seemed to glow in the sunlight that poured in the windows.

"For your courageous efforts in protecting Camelot, in spite of it not being your home, you have shown great courage. I wished my king was here, however, to meet you all in person, but since he has gone missing. Thus, in his place, I shall honor you all. Please, kneel before me."

The Riders did as told and knelt before the Queen of Camelot.

"I dub thee Sir Ryuki of the Dragon's Fire"

"I dub thee Sir Knight the Chivalrous."

"I dub thee Sir Scissors the Just"

"I dub thee Sir Zolda of the Iron Ox"

"I dub thee Sir Gai of the Invincible Steel."

"I dub thee Sir Raia the Mystic"

"I dub thee Sir Ouja the Venomous"

"I dub thee Sir Tiger the Brave"

"I dub thee Sir Imperer the Swift"

"I dub thee Sir Verde the Cunning"

"I dub thee Sir Odin the Mighty"

"I dub thee Sir Abyss the Bold"

"I dub thee Lady Femme the Graceful"

"And finally I dub thee Sir Ryuga of the Black Dragon."

She finished, "Now, rise. From this day forth you are now the new Knights of the Round Table!"

An explosive cheer echoed through the room as each of the Riders, now official Knights, stood and faced the room. Everyone had bright smiles on their faces, cheering and congratulating the new champions of Camelot, feeling secure now that they were protected again. The riders themselves knew that a heavy burden was placed on their shoulders, but they knew they could handle it. After all, the things they faced were just as bad as whatever Morganna and her Warlords could throw at them.

Right?

* * *

A/N: Well, another idea I had. This one combines elements of Kamen Rider Ryuki with King Arthur and the Knights of Justice. It just hit me one day so I figured, why not? Let me know what you think.


	8. Ikki Tousen: Wild Card

I do not own Ikki Tousen or Ranma ½. They belong to their respective creators and not me. I am only writing this for fun and not for profit.

Ikki Tousen: Wild Card

By Ten-Faced Paladin

* * *

"You know, I think this has to be the best one yet."

"Totally."

The two speakers were a pair of students whom were standing at the front gate of their school, both with bags of popcorn in their hands, munching away. One had short hair which was smooth with slightly narrow eyes while the other had shaggy hair with wider eyes. Their names were Hiroshi (shaggy hair) and Daisuke (narrow eyes) and both were students at the somewhat infamous Furinkan High School, centre of weirdness for the Nerima district. Next to them and sitting on the outer wall with his chin resting in his hand and scorched Chinese clothes was their common friend and constant source of (good natured) amusement, Ranma Saotome.

Usually at this time of day they would have been in class, at least Hiroshi and Daisuke would. Ranma would probably either have been in class or dealing with another angry fighter who wanted a bone to pick with either him or his father depending on the situation. However, that was not to be today as Furinkan High School was now sporting a large hole in its front which covered several floors and had been on fire, at least until the emergency crews had arrived on time for a change.

It had all started when Principal Kuno once again tried to force students to be late for class so he could be allowed to punish them by either giving them all haircuts or make them practically worship a bust of him in a locked room below his office so they could escape. This time his big plan was to fill the hallways with traps that would become active when the warning bell rang so the students could be late for class when they would trigger them while they attempted to get to class. After that, he'd patrol the halls and jump anyone who was forced to stand outside, aiming for his usual punishment of buzz-cuts for boys and bowl-cuts for girls. As the norm for Furinkan, Ranma had been once again forced into the hall since he and Akane had gotten into a fight once again over Ranma supposedly staring at Ms. Hinako's adult form. Avoiding being drained by the ki vampire, Ranma went to the hall with Akane before both were jumped by Principal Kuno. The resulting fight passed through the entire school before Principal Kuno got caught inside one of his own flame traps with a pineapple bomb which went up and took several sections of floor with it, resulting in the current situation.

"The stupid moron shouldn't have been using flamethrower traps," Ranma sighed, eyeing the elder Kuno being carried away by paramedics while wrapped up like a mummy.

"Good thing the Chemistry Club wasn't using that room today though," Hiroshi continued, munching his popcorn. His statement was referring to the chemistry clubroom which Principal Kuno had been storing the fuel for his fire traps which had went up the same time he did. It certainly explained why a simple pineapple bomb took out so much of the school.

"True," Daisuke agreed. Glancing up from his snack, he looked to Ranma. "So where is Akane? Usually she's here telling you you're an idiot or something."

"Hanging out with Yuka and Sayuri I think," Ranma replied easily. "Can't really say it wasn't my fault this time."

"Well, Principal Kuno shouldn't be laying traps like that anyway," Hiroshi argued. "Maybe finally someone will notice and fire him."

"With the kind of money he has? Not likely," Daisuke disagreed. Glancing at Ranma, he noticed the pigtailed martial artist wasn't enjoying seeing a Kuno in pain like he usually would and instead seemed more distant from the usual chaos. Anyone who kept their ears to the vein of Nerima's resident peacekeeper/chaos magnet could guess why the pigtailed boy seemed so out of it lately. "So things haven't been getting better since that whole wedding thing?"

"I wish," Ranma muttered, his eyes losing focus as he remembered what was probably the biggest Fiancée Brigade spat of all time. He and Akane Tendo, his so-called 'true' fiancée as proclaimed by his father Genma and Soun Tendo, had almost been married thanks in no small part to Soun holding a cask of Spring of Drowned Boy water hostage. However before the ceremony could actually start, the fiancées crashed it, guns blazing, ready to take down Akane by any means and/or take her place at the altar, whichever came first. The dojo Ranma called home was almost destroyed in the ensuing fight and the Nannichaun water was likewise lost, leaving all the Jusenkyo-cursed boys present slumped in depression for a few days.

Shaking his head to forget that time, Ranma just sighed, "Akane's been eyeing me like a hawk, acting like the moment she can't see me I'm doing something perverted to some helpless girl. Ukyo's been turning the drama up every time she sees me, talking about her lost childhood."

"Sounds like she's trying to guilt you into marrying her," Daisuke commented. That in itself was no big surprise since Ukyo Kuonji, the cross-dressing Okonomiyaki chef whom was engaged to Ranma had a habit of bringing up how Ranma's father stole her dowry and abandoned her, usually making it into a huge dramatic scene where both Ranma and whoever was with him could hear. Lately she had become more prone to doing that whenever she would see him, no doubt trying to get public support behind her claim since she stopped making a distinction between just her and Ranma hanging out and in the middle of a mealtime rush in her restaurant. According to Ranma, it was more than a little embarrassing and both boys were quite willing to take his word on that.

"Probably right," Ranma nodded. "Shampoo's snuck into my bath twice already and now I have to practically nail the door shut to keep her out. She's also tried drugging me three times with food."

"Wow, how'd you avoid that? You eat free food like there's no tomorrow," asked Hiroshi. He knew that the Chinese Amazon who claimed Ranma as her husband through tribal law would and had done just about anything to make Ranma consummate their 'marriage'. Several attempts included using weird herbs which would affect his mind, sneaking into his bath and showing herself off to him, or even using magic trinkets to make Ranma fall in love with her by force. Naturally they all went down in flames, but lately the Amazon had been using them quite liberally in her pursuit.

"Fed some to Kuno making him think my girl side made it," Ranma answered. "Shampoo wasn't happy but once Kuno started chasing her or doing whatever anyone told him to do when someone snapped their fingers she realized she was busted. Last time she actually tried sneaking the spice into my food while I wasn't looking. I figured she would try it so I pretended to be distracted and caught her in the act. I made a big deal about being mad and stuff too."

"That's why she left so fast last time she came," Daisuke realized. "What about her great-grandma?"

"Well, she seems content to leave me alone since that trip to China," Ranma shrugged. "I think she's figured out that Shampoo's blown any chance at me and just needs to realize it."

"Sounds like the kind of lesson she'd teach," Hiroshi snickered, remembering the antics Cologne would put his friend through, having witnessed Ranma's struggles for the Pheonix Pill so long ago. "What about Kodachi?"

"As nuts as ever," Ranma answered simply. The female spawn of Principal Kuno was all but stalking him at this point, using any opportunity she could to try and drug Ranam and kidnap him from the Tendo Dojo, somehow feeling she was rescuing him from the clutches of Akane and his female form. She seemed absolutely sure he should worship the ground she walked on and thank her for rescuing him even by marrying her as soon as possible.

"And what about the rivals?" asked Daisuke.

"They attack me pretty much on sight nowadays," Ranma replied, snickering. "They go at me in groups now. Usually it's made up of Mousse and Ryoga. Kuno sometimes get involved but now he's using a real sword to try and take me down. Its about the only time I get any real training since my Pop can't keep up with me anymore and the only exorcise he seems willing to go through is his mouth when he yells at me for not marrying Akane."

Ryoga and Kuno's reasons for attacking were pretty simple to figure out. Akane had been royally pissed off at Ranma for not going through with the event, feeling that Ranma was continuing to string the other girls along for his personal amusement and said as much to her pet piggy P-chan who was really Ryoga in his cursed form. Always seeing Akane as right and could do no wrong, Ryoga took her word as gospel and went after Ranma with even more vengeance than usual. Kuno of course fought to free his 'pigtailed girl' from Ranma's 'clutches' and also sought to punish Ranma for trying to marry Akane without his permission. Mousse had been all for the wedding and had even help set it up. What he was angry about was the fact that Shampoo was going after Ranma even harder than ever and thus figured Ranma was 'obviously' stringing her along, using her desperation as a tool for his own amusement.

"Speaking of your dad, why do you even listen to him anymore?" asked Daisuke. "I mean, he's gotta be the biggest thief and cheat in the world. Not to mention he's broken the promise to Akane's dad probably more times than even he can remember. Why doesn't Mr. Tendo just toss him out?"

"Not sure," Ranma shrugged. "The guy just seems happy to blame me for the extra fiancées even though it's mostly Pop who made them into fiancées in the first place. He takes Akane's side in everything even when he knows its Akane's fault like in her cooking. He knows it's bad and just makes me eat it so he won't have to. He can't just man up and tell her it's bad since she'll just blow a gasket and hit someone, probably me."

"Okay…" Hiroshi grimaced. "Man, it's a damn miracle you haven't gone insane yet."

"Trust me, it's not easy," Ranma nodded, his eyes regaining focus and instead looked to the missing floors of his school. "So, how many days off do you think this repair job is going to take?"

"Well, if its those Martial Arts Repair and Construction guys who were hired to fix that hole in the roof the last time the Fiancee Brigade all got together then it may just take a few days. I'd say under a week." Daisuke guessed.

"Nah, they charge too much. You know how cheap Principal Kuno is," Hiroshi denied. "I'd say it'll take three weeks and that's if they use a company stationed in Nerima."

"I'm with Hiroshi," Ranma nodded. "If Principal Kuno decides that the locals charge too much then he'll try someone from Juuban or something and that'll take even longer since we bust more stuff than the Sailor Senshi do. I say it takes a month."

"You're on," Hiroshi and Daisuke spoke at once.

_-Ding-Ding! Ding-Ding!-_

Hiroshi and Daisuke heard the chimes of a cell phone which was so common in their age group. Both had checked their pockets out of pure reflex, finding that their own communication devices were not active and alerting them. Pocketing them, they heard the tell-tale 'beep' which signalled that someone had pressed a receiving button which accepted the message or call. Following the noise, they looked to Ranma again who had reached into his own pocket and produced a cell phone of his own. He was reading a text message of some kind and it was apparently good news since he had a grin on his face, one of those amused and nostalgic kinds rather than his usual cocky one.

"Since when do you have a cell phone?" asked Hiroshi.

"Since a few weeks ago during my birthday," Ranma answered, pressing a few buttons. "My cousin sent it to me as a gift. Took me forever how to figure out how to use messages and calling."

"You have a cousin?" blinked Daisuke. "How come you never mentioned it before?"

"Didn't seem important to mention it after I first came," Ranma answered, still pressing buttons as he made a message to reply with. "After the other fiancées and rivals started showing up, I figured it was for both my own and her safety that I don't mention it."

"So your cousin is a girl," Hiroshi began to grin. "So does she have a name? Do you have a picture?"

Rolling his eyes, Ranma began working on a different function of his phone. He should have expected this since it was a known fact that almost all of the boys in Furinkan were desperate for any kind of female attention that they could get. The pickings must have been slim since the Hentai Horde managed to gain so many members even though there seemed to be so many girls in the school. Either they all had boyfriends, proving there were more boys than girls or the whole mob mentality had taken over.

"Her name's Hakufu Sonsaku," Ranma replied, bringing up an image on the screen. Pointing it at his friends, he revealed a photo of a strawberry blonde who was smiling brightly and was wearing a violet sundress which seemed to reach down to her thighs and held back breasts which seemed capable of filling a person's hand to the point of overflowing.

"Wow…" the two boys grinned.

"Yeah," Ranma shrugged, recalling the picture and bringing his phone back. "I first met her when I was little. Pop was dragging me through Kanto when we were spotted by Aunt Goei. Boy was Pop nervous."

"Nervous?" asked Hiroshi.

"Aunt Goei is Mom's sister and if I remember right, they share a lot of habits…"

-FLASHBACK-

_Genma Saotome was pulling Ranma along through one of the cities in Kanto, his son only around nine years old. The man was looking for some training dojos which he had heard about in the nearby mountains. However, he first had to get directions to those mountains and get some more supplies._

"_Pop, I'm hungry!" Chibi-Ranma whined._

"_Quiet Boy!" Genma hissed. "A martial artist is able to take some adversity!" While that was true, Genma's own stomach was viciously insisting to be fed like always. So much so Genma was considering trying to find some restaurant owner with a daughter so he could arrange a 'deal' with them in return for some free food, usually only enough to feed him and only him while leaving Ranma to either fend for himself or just get scraps. The problem was that all the buildings were someone similar looking and it looked like he was lost._

'_Not lost, just taking the scenic route,' Genma corrected himself. After all, a martial artist of his calibre never got lost. He was the pinnacle of manhood!_

"_Why, Genma Saotome!"_

_Genma paled and immediately turned to face who had called his name, incidentally placing himself behind Ranma, ready to use the boy in one of his pre-made excuses to get out of trouble. Finding his opponent, he spotted a woman in a black kimono and a red obi. She had short dark hair which was curled in the back slightly and was holding a white lace daytime umbrella. Her face was pretty and she had a large smile on her red lips, but her glasses gave her that mature woman charm. All in all, she looked like the kind of woman anyone would want to get next to._

_Genma began to pale further and sweat, "Go-Go-Goei?"_

"_Why, you do remember me!" the woman smiled as she advanced on the nervous man. "My, my, No-chan's been so worried about little Ranma. She'll be so happy to hear that he's safe and sound."_

"_Um…ah…huh…" Genma sputtered._

"_Why, she just hasn't been herself since you left," the woman known as Goei continued. "All of the neighbours seem to think that you've gone up and abandoned her, kidnapping your only child in the process. It's very hard on her too. All sorts of debt collectors seem to keep knocking on her door too. They seem to think that Ranma, a nine-year old boy is racking up debts of sake, bar tabs, and enough food to feed a small herd of elephants. Imagine that!"_

"_Ah…yes…imagine…" Genma gulped._

"_Luckily she managed to get it all straightened out and the debts are in your name now," Goei smiled, but her smile seemed to have an edge of steel in it._

"_Lucky…" Genma slumped. If he had gone any more pale people would have assumed he was a ghost. 'Damn, I was hoping it would be longer before they figured it out and by then forget about me!'_

"_Hmm, now that I know I have family here, I must __insist__ that you stay with us for at least a little while," Goei continued, looking as pleasant as ever, but the sharp steel in both her smile and her voice never leaving. "I'm sure it will be much better than staying in a tent or the open air."_

"…_okay…" Genma gulped._

"_Thanks!" Ranma smiled. Gosh, he never got to sleep in a bed inside a house before. All he got to sleep on was futons in tents when his dad didn't try to steal them when he wasn't looking._

"_Oh, anything for my nephew!" Goei giggled as Ranma's eyes lit up on her. The steel was completely gone from her face and voice as she talked to the little pigtailed boy._

-END FLASHBACK-

"Wow. Your dad is really scared of your aunt?" asked Hiroshi.

"Well, it was probably partly because she knew how to get in contact with Mom and tell her some of the stupid stuff Pop was doing in the name of training," Ranma answered, still writing his reply. "The other part was that she probably knew about the contract and would see just how manly I was at age nine. Mom can be kind of vague about what makes manly men, but Aunt Goei sure knows. She's single so she's kind of boy crazy, at least from what Hakufu told me."

"So did you meet Hakufu then?" asked Daisuke.

"Yeah, and her cousin Kokin Shuyu," Ranma nodded.

-FLASHBACK-

_Upon being led to the Shu home by a smiling Goei, Ranma was guided to the backyard where two other kids were playing. One was a boy with short almost dark blue hair who wore shorts and a simple t-shirt. The other was a girl the same age as both boys with strawberry blonde hair done up in two ponytails wearing a violet sundress. The girl was yelling about something and running with a stick while the boy seemed to be trying to calm her down._

"_Hakufu! Kokin!, I brought guests!" Goei called._

"_Huh?" the girl, Hakufu, blinked as she spotted the sullen Genma and smiling Ranma. "Who are they Mama?"_

"_Why they're your Uncle Genma and your cousin Ranma of course!" Goei giggled. "I just saw them today and decided that we could all have a nice visit together. Isn't that nice?"_

"_Yay!" the little girl cheered as she ran towards Ranma with the other boy in tow. Reaching Ranma, she stood straight with a bright smile on her face. "Hi! My name's Hakufu and this is my cousin Kokin!"_

"_Hi, I'm Ranma!" the pigtailed boy smiled. "I'm training to be a martial artist just like my Pop!"_

"_Oh! Cool!" Hakufu smiled. "I like fighting too! My mama lets me use a punching back and I get to hit and punch it all I want! I watch all sorts of cool fighting movies when I can too! They're so awesome! I want to be able to jump and fight like them too! Say, is your father really the lazy man Mama is always saying bad things about?"_

"_Lazy? What's that mean?" asked Ranma in confusion._

"_It…it means someone who lies down and doesn't work at all," Kokin answered somewhat quietly._

"_Oh," Ranma blinked. After a moment of considering the word, he began to smile. "That's Pop! He's always laying around while I'm training. Whenever I slow down he starts yelling at me for being lazy too even though I'm the one working all the time."_

"_Oh ho ho! That sounds like Genma!" Goei laughed, but the steel had returned to her voice as her eyes lanced to Genma._

_The round martial artist wanted to argue that he was not lazy and worked very hard to train Ranma to be the best. He missed several meals to make sure Ranma trained! However, the excuses he knew were perfectly reasonable and understandable in his mind would never be allowed in Goei's mind, much less Nodoka's. He could have tried blustering and explain all dramatic-like how he put his all into Ranma's training but Goei was never one to trust him even when he was in sight and telling the truth. As such, he decided to go the tried and true method of shutting up and nodding, an answer which women like Goei and Nodoka seemed to accept._

"_Hey, wanna go play?" asked Hakufu. "We're playing Romance of the Three Kingdoms!"_

"_How do you play that?" asked Ranma._

"_It's easy! I'm Empress Hakufu and you guys are my loyal retainers as we go out and take over China!" Hakufu cheered._

"_That sounds like fun!" Ranma grinned. "Let's go beat people up!"_

"_Yeah!" the little girl cheered._

"_Do we have to?" whined Kokin._

_-_END FLASHBACK-

"Kokin was all right I guess, but we never seemed to really become friends like Hakufu and I did. I guess we were just too different," Ranma explained. "He was really protective of Hakufu though. One time we got into a fight over who could protect Hakufu more before she broke us both up and said we could both protect her at the same time. Aunt Goei just loved it, saying that manly men bloomed early or something."

"Sounds like something your mom would say," Hiroshi snickered. "They must be related."

"So did your dad try his usual scheme of clearing the house out of everything of value?" asked Daisuke.

"Nah. I think Aunt Goei kept a list of everything that was in the house," Ranma laughed. "She kept taking out this long piece of paper when Pop was around and showed it to him and pointed at something. Pop would pale, get sweaty, and try to deny it but Aunt Goei would just glare at him and he'd pull out whatever he took from his gi and give it back to her."

"Finally someone your dad can't swindle!" Hiroshi grinned.

"So what is your cousin writing to you about anyway?" asked Daisuke.

"Well, she started her new school and already managed to find plenty of people to fight," Ranma answered, slipping off the wall. The emergency crews were finishing up and getting statements. They would be leaving soon and that would signal the return of the usual strangeness which filled Nerima. "She's a sucker for a good fight like me. She said she's moving in with Kokin's family while she goes. She talked mostly about this big muscled guy who kicked her butt and how badly she wants a rematch though."

"Definitely related to you," Daisuke nodded with a laugh. "What school is she going to?"

"Uh…" Ranma frowned, scrolling through the message before finding the name. "A place called Nanyo Academy."

The two regular boys were quiet for a moment as they were told the name of the school. Both of them had heard the name before. In fact, anyone who had been keeping up with the news would have recognized the name. However, either Ranma had no clue just what the rumours were that were connected to the school known as Nanyo Academy or he did and being the fight nut that he was, didn't know just how bad things could turn out.

"Nanyo Academy, you sure that's the place?" asked Daisuke.

"Yeah, it is. Why?" asked Ranma.

"Well, it's just that there are a lot of rumours going on about that place," the narrow-eyed boy grimaced. "I mean, it's all the way out in Kanto and we're still able to hear about stuff going on there."

"What kind of rumours?" asked Ranma with a frown, not liking the tone of voice that his friend was using. His nervous fidgeting as he made the previous statement was also a dead giveaway that the supposed rumours that Daisuke was talking about were not of the good variety either.

"That Nanyo Academy and six other schools are involved in some kind of gang war," Daisuke answered with Hiroshi nodding vigorously. "I mean, it's massive and people are getting really hurt when they fight it. If your cousin Hakufu is really a fight nut like you then she's probably going to get involved."

Ranma's eyes narrowed on his two friends, trying to figure out if it was just rumour or not, but not being one to discern lies being told to him unless they were blatantly obvious, he couldn't have been sure. Still, if what they were saying was true then his cousin Hakufu might be in trouble. She was a fight enthusiast for sure, but she had no skills and no real moves beyond punching and kicking. She didn't have the patience for martial arts like he did when they were little and judging by some of the mail she had sent him, she probably still didn't. If her excitement in finding strong opponents remained the same then she'd probably get involved in the war just to be able to fight strong people…just like he would.

"Crap," the pigtailed martial artist scowled as he slipped the phone into his pocket. "Do either of you know where Nabiki went?"

"I think she went home after her cronies collected all of the bet money on your latest fight with Principal Kuno," Daisuke answered.

"Okay, then I've gotta go," Ranma nodded, his face growing very grim. "See you guys."

Ranma then exited the school grounds, leaving the two boys behind. Both of them could tell that Ranma was going to get serious on something or somebody since he only ever wore a grim look like that when he was going to kick someone's butt. If a relation of his was going to get involved then it was probably going to be the most serious that anyone was going to see him fighting in a long time. The only problem was that no one in Furinkan was probably going to see it.

"You ever get the feeling that something big is going to change because of this?" asked Hiroshi.

"I got the same feeling when Ranma first showed up," Daisuke nodded.

* * *

**Tendo Dojo**

Nabiki indeed had gone home early from school that day as reported by Hiroshi and Daisuke. Since a portion of the school had been obliterated by Principal Kuno with another abuse of authority idea and the students staging a revolt with Ranma in the lead, she now had some free time. After collecting the bet money made from the most recent fight, she had gone home to crunch some numbers and finish what homework she had so she could get to her favourite pastimes, lounging and skimming money off Ranma. While she didn't dislike the pigtailed boy, far from it since he had managed to solve a lot of problems for the family such as Picolet, the Dojo Destroyer, and other various problems, Nabiki skimmed money off just about everyone so to fund the monthly budget. Oh sure, sometimes she'd splurge a little on herself and that one month where she blew the monthly savings was sort of a punishment on her father who was being extra stupid at the time, but she did that sort of thing to just about everyone and Ranma just made it so easy, making it all entertainment to her.

Trying to figure out some odds for the next Kuno/Saotome battle, Nabiki heard her door open. Glancing, she saw Ranma entering her room with a very grim look on his face. Now she knew Ranma was very serious about something, having seen him wear that look mostly when Akane was in danger or something. However, to Nabiki's knowledge Akane was safe and sound at the school, complaining to her friends what an idiot her fiancé was for doing such damage to the school despite everyone else cheering for the boy. Either one of the other fiancées was in trouble or something else was up. Either way, it meant money for her and a potential new betting subject.

"Why Saotome, don't you ever knock?" Nabiki asked with a catty grin as she swivelled in her chair to greet her potential brother-in-law. "I could have been naked in here you know. Imagine what Akane or the other girls would say if they knew you were putting the moves on me?"

"Can it," Ranma frowned, stopping Nabiki's train of thought completely. Usually the Saotome would be blushing at the thought and stammering, making for an amusing floor show. If her usual flirting innuendo wasn't affecting him, then he must have been dead serious about something. Saffron-level seriousness if she guessed right. Reaching into his pocket, Ranma produced a wad of yen notes and tossed them into Nabiki's hands. The middle Tendo Daughter blinked as she caught the money while Ranma made his request. "That's 10,000 Yen. I want to know everything you can get on the supposed gang war out in Kanto involving seven schools."

Naiki blinked again, but her brain quickly went into business mode as she pocketed the cash, "You're in luck Saotome. Since it first came on the news, I decided to learn what I could about it since I figured you were going to get involved sooner or later. One of my subordinates has relatives out there who don't mind explaining what they know in return for a little payment." Returning to her desk, she opened a drawer filled with files. Picking one, she retrieved it before handing it over to the pigtailed young man. "It seems that the gang war going on out there is involving all seven schools and their student body, not a bunch if punks who attend each school. They are fighting to dominate the area and the seven schools entirely. The reason why no one is really sure. However, there is something I'd say is weird about the whole thing and makes me think you'd get involved."

"What's that?" asked Ranma.

"It seems that the best fighters there are named after historic figures from Romance of the Three Kingdoms," Nabiki explained. Seeing Ranma's raised eyebrow, she snickered. It figured that he had never read the story before since Genma considered things like books and education a waste of time. "It's a story from the 16th century about a war out in China. Apparently the gang war is some kind of re-enactment of it according to my source."

"Oh," Ranma nodded. This was just sounding better and better. "Was there a character named Hakufu Sonsaku?"

"Yup," Nabiki nodded. "That was one of the leaders of the three Kingdoms. One of the toughest too."

"Great," Ranma frowned. It seemed that his cousin was all but guaranteed to be part of the war if it was being some kind of re-enactment of events which happened centuries ago simply because she was named after one of the strongest fighters that had taken part in it. "Do you know the seven schools that are in the middle of this?"

"Yes," Nabiki nodded. "They're called Rakuyo High School, Nanyo Academy, Kyosho Academy, Youshu Private School, Yoshuu Academy, Seito Private School, and Ryoushu Private School. At the moment it seems that Rakuyo is the toughest school out there."

"Perfect," Ranma frowned. Flipping through the papers in the file, he found a map which had seven points circled in red, presumably the positions of the seven schools.

"Now that I've answered your question, answer mine," Nabiki smirked. "Just why are you so interested now?"

"I have a relative who started going to Nanyo today," Ranma answered immediately. Unlike him, Nabiki could sniff out a lie a mile away which was why the fathers never really tried to get her on their side in getting him married to Akane. She could see through the layers of bullcrap they could dish out and she knew that their reasons for the engagement weren't as pure as they liked to think they were. Well, at least for Genma's side anyway. It was better to just tell the truth and get it over with. "Hiroshi and Daisuke mentioned the war and I was worried."

"Hmm. And you relation's name is Hakufu Sonsaku eh?" wondered Nabiki, guessing the supposed relative's identity from the questions Ranma had been asking.

"Yes. She's a fight nut like me but unlike me she has no training whatsoever," Ranma sighed. "If she is going to be forced to be part of this, she's probably not going to last long unless she gets training."

Now, Nabiki usually would have milked this for all it was worth by selling her silence to Ranma before selling the info to the fiancées and rivals once his cash dried up. However, that would have been if this Hakufu girl Ranma was so worried about was a friend or something. Ice Queen and money-grubber she might have been, but there were some lines that she wouldn't cross. Dealing against family was one of those things. Well, past a certain point anyway. Ranma was showing genuine concern for this Hakufu girl and Nabiki knew just how bad the gang war could get, having gotten reports of deaths and intensive care visits by some of the people who had lost in it.

"Thanks Nabiki," Ranma nodded, slipping the file into his ki pocket. "How much will it cost to keep you quiet?"

"Pro bono in this case," the middle Tendo shrugged. "If this Hakufu girl is a relative then there's no point in getting the Wrecking Crew all worked up. Besides, you're concerned for a genuine reason rather than one of your usual dumb reasons like pride or something your father did. If I find out she's really a girl on the side though…"

"Right, right," Ranma shivered. That would just be Armageddon in the Nerima district and it wasn't something he wanted to risk. "Trust me, Hakufu is a cousin and that's all. No romantic interest there."

With the file in his possession, Ranma left the room. Nabiki was left wondering what exactly he planned to do now that he knew the situation out in Kanto. If a relative of his really was involved then he was most likely going to try and do something about it and that meant he'd be likely setting out for Kanto. Well, if anything else once the news came to Furinkan she could make bets about how long it'd be before he started making waves, made the news, or even stopped the war by beating up everyone involved.

With a small smile, she began calculating the odds.

* * *

Ranma had returned to his own room and began packing his clothes. He knew that getting out of Nerima so to check out Kanto was going to be tough by itself; especially since the fiancées had a habit of following him everywhere he went so to try and squeeze some kind of romance out of the trip. However, he couldn't let them come this time. This was a family affair and it would be handled by family and just because they were engaged it didn't mean they were family despite the arguments they would no doubt make to the contrary.

The sounds of a sliding door alerted him to someone coming. Turning his face, he saw the form of his mother looking at him with some confusion.

"Son, why are you packing? Are you and your father going on another training trip?" asked Nodoka.

"Ah…no," Ranma answered. Steeling himself he began to explain, hoping it was an acceptable reason. When it came to his mother, one was never sure what could be called reasonable with her state of mind. "Well, I got a message from cousin Hakufu today and I just figured that since it's been so long and I had some free time, I'd go down and visit her and Aunt Goei. You know, see the family again."

Nodoka once again blinked at the explanation, but then her smile began to light up the room, "Oh Ranma that's a splendid idea! It has been a while since you've seen Go-chan and Hakufu-chan. Why, I'll bet they'll just love how manly you've become. Hakufu-chan has become quite the young woman too. It's a shame you two are related since you two would make quite the couple but that's life." If possible, Nodoka's face lit up even more as a new idea came to her. "Say, why don't you take Akane with you? You can introduce your fiancée to Go-chan!"

"Ah, I was kind of hoping to go alone," Ranma sweatdropped. Having Akane around would just make the situation worse since she'd call him a pervert who would eye up his own cousin no doubt and probably make fighting those gangs even harder. Akane had a habit of getting into the middle of his fights even though she often yelled at him for doing the same. "You know, catch up and see what they're up to. I mean, things have been so hectic here I've been hoping to get some time alone and relax." There, that sounded like a perfectly reasonable request.

"Hmmm," Nodoka pondered, placing her finger on her chin. "Well, I suppose even the manliest of men need some time to relax. Although I do feel if you just took those other nice girls as mistresses then relaxing wouldn't be a problem. Still, it's your choice I suppose and if you want to go see Go-chan then I won't stop you. Although, there is something I'd like to give you before you head out though."

"Huh? Something to give me?" Ranma blinked.

"Yes," Nodoka nodded, withdrawing her hand into her kimono. After a moment, she brought it back out with a small black box which seemed to be polished and lacquered to perfection. "It took me forever to find one, but I just had to since Go-chan said the manliest men and womanliest women wear these out in Kanto."

Taking the box, Ranma removed the lid to see what was inside. As the lid was removed, the light flooded the box and sparkled off of what looked like a gold bead. It was shaped like part of a Tao yin-yang symbol with a hole where the oppositely coloured dot would normally be. It was actually a very mesmerising trinket and it had a way of catching the eye when Ranma had peered at it. Somehow, it felt like more than just a simple bead.

"Where did you find this?" asked Ranma.

"I found it with an old man in a shrine," Nodoka answered with a smile. "He said it was a family heirloom but his son had died in an accident and that he had no one to pass it on to. When I mentioned my son was a strong martial artist that was unmatched in my home district, he seemed quite eager to sell it to me. I got it for practically nothing!"

"Oh," Ranma blinked. Shrugging, he plucked the bead out of the case and continued looking at it. "So, all of the strong people in Kanto wear these?"

"From what Go-chan told me, yes," Nodoka nodded. "If you have one on then people will try to fight you apparently. I guess there are just so many people who want to test how manly they are or girls who are looking out for the best possible match for them!"

"Right…" Ranma sweatdropped. "Well, thanks Mom."

"My pleasure!" Nodoka smiled. "Still, if you plan to go visit Go-chan and Hakufu-chan then you had better get going. I'll let Kasumi know not to set a place."

"Thanks Mom," Ranma nodded, pushing the last of his things into his backpack. Hefting it over his shoulder, he headed to the window and leaped out, beginning his trek across the rooftops. Nodoka just watched him go with a smile, but it soon turned into a frown.

"Go-chan…it's just like I predicted…" she sighed.

* * *

Kanto was a fair distance away, even for roofhopping so Ranma had decided to spring for train fare from what measly amounts of spare cash he had leftover from paying Nabiki off. The ride had taken a little while, but it was at least peaceful. No one was causing trouble and it wasn't all that crowded either. During the trip, Ranma had taken out the golden bead his mother had given him. He still couldn't figure out why it gave him such an odd feeling, but as long as it wasn't dangerous he didn't care all that much. However, he didn't notice some people gulp nervously and shuffle away from him as they saw the item in his possession. Oblivious to the nervous people around him, Ranma just continued to look at the item before he reached into his pack and produced a length of string he had gotten from somewhere and made a makeshift necklace from it with the bead at the centre. Jewellery wasn't really his thing, but if the thing would help him blend into the Kanto region then all the better for him.

With the train finally stopping, Ranma got off and looked around. It didn't escape his notice that there were some other kids his age that sported the same kind of beads as either earrings or necklaces, but the colours were different. He didn't escape their notice either as they kept their eyes on the arriving crowd or spotted the bead hanging around his neck. They didn't make any moves, but they did bring out their cell phones and begin making messages. Still, Ranma didn't care. Let them talk. He had more important things to do like finding where Nanyo Academy was so he could check on his cousin.

Exiting the station, he retrieved the file Nabiki had given him and retrieved the map. Like he had seen, it had marked out the seven schools' positions, but it didn't say which of the schools were which. Sighing, Ranma decided to just go through them one by one starting with the one closest to his current position, "Okay. Let's see which one comes first."

While Genma may have disregarded a lot about maps except where his position was and where he wanted to go, Ranma had taken the skill of map reading seriously since he had gotten sick of being lost during the training trip and his father making stupid excuses about how men didn't need to ask for directions or similar crap. It was easy for Ranma to find his position and thus find where the closest of the seven schools were. After that, he folded the map and placed in his pocket again before he set off.

* * *

**Meanwhile…**

The Tendo household was in its usual measure of downtime between martial arts challengers and various antics of the mentally unstable or downright idiotic people which would plague them. Genma and Soun were playing shogi and doing nothing but cheat as they tried to beat each other yet again. Nabiki was enjoying the peace and reading one of her magazines at the table while Kasumi was sitting at the table, enjoying some tea and having a break. Akane was in the kitchen once again trying her hand at cooking while Nodoka was elsewhere, doing the laundry.

"Say, where's Ranma anyway? I made dinner tonight," Akane spoke as she brought out a plate of her usual cooking disasters which she seemed to believe was perfectly edible even though she never tasted it to be sure, believing that it was as perfect as Kasumi's.

"Yes, where is the boy?" asked Genma. "He should be here to taste his fiancée's cooking." '_Better him than me!_'

"I haven't seen him since this afternoon," Soun pondered, likewise hoping the boy would take the brunt of Akane's horrible cooking skills.

"Oh, he's gone to go visit some relatives," Nodoka smiled, entering the room. "He said Hakufu-chan sent him a message today so he was going to go visit her and Go-chan. Isn't that nice?"

"Hakufu? Go-chan? Who are they?" asked Akane suspiciously. She noticed Genma flinch and begin to sweat. Whenever the heavyset martial artist did that it meant that something he did was about to catch up to him or it was someone he would prefer to forget about. Usually it was an extra fiancée he set up and that meant another girl who Ranma would be 'perverted' with in Akane's often misinformed mind. She was already ready to break out her mallet if that was the case.

"Why, they're Ranma's cousin and aunt," Nodoka smiled. "It has been a while since he's seen them and Hakufu has only recently started keeping in contact with him when she sent him that cell phone for his birthday."

Akane blinked, remembering that day. Everyone had gotten something for Ranma save for Genma who got himself drunk again while stating a birthday was just a distraction from Ranma's duties to the families. Of course, the man promptly threw a fit when it seemed like everyone save for Nodoka and Soun had forgotten that it was his own birthday in the past. Ranma had gotten the cell phone in a pink box and Akane assumed that it was a girl who gave it to him. The way his face lit up for that simple gift rather than for the training towel with the horse (mistaken for a tiger and thus received a freak out) she had worked so hard to make for him just made her temper worse. She assumed the phone came from Ukyo or Kodachi and she thus lost her temper and pounded him, feeling justified as usual with her father and Genma backing her yet again.

"His cousin sent him that? He didn't tell me that he had a cousin!" Akane cried.

"Well, you did beat him into unconsciousness for smiling when he got it and whenever he tried to explain for the next week you just kept pounding him," Nabiki commented from her magazine. She remembered seeing Ranma get hit with Akane's trusty mallet so fast he could never even say where the phone had come from. "After that week he just gave up trying to explain since you just didn't want to listen to him…like always."

"He's gone to visit relatives?" Soun blinked, ignorant of his friend's nervousness. "Why didn't he take Akane with him? He could have introduced her to them!" and received more support for the marriage from more of the Saotome and hopefully get the boy to finally see reason and marry his little girl as was right and proper in his mind.

"Well, Ranma said he wanted some time alone so he wanted to visit by himself," Nodoka shrugged. "I must say, after all of the hijinks him and his friends get up to, I can't say that I blame him."

"Hnnnn!" Akane frowned. No doubt Ranma was going to get into trouble or into some kind of perverted mess. "I'd better go after him then. Where does his cousin live Auntie?"

Nodoka merely walked past Akane and took a seat at the table while she began to pour a cup of tea, "I don't think telling anyone would be a good idea. Ranma wants some peace and quiet and I think he could use some as well. Besides, Go-chan is a responsible adult and will make sure nothing bad happens to him. He's in good hands."

Akane of course didn't believe that as she began to grit her teeth, angry as always when her supposed fiancé wasn't there to try her cooking, spar, say something nice, or anything Akane expected a man of hers to do. Not that she let anyone know that since she constantly stated she hated boys and often saw them as perverts no matter what.

* * *

**Kanto**

Ranma walked up to the inner-city school building which was labelled as closest to him. It didn't really look all that impressive, but if there was supposedly a gang hanging around then he could believe that it was in this school. It was bland and more or less small. Definitely a place where thugs would hang out since it probably didn't receive that many students who wanted to enter besides thugs who had gotten low grades and needed a dumping ground. Ignoring the various punk-types who were sporting the same beads and glaring at him, Ranma spotted the sign posted outside the outer wall.

"Youshu Private School," Ranma read. "Great. Wrong one." Taking out a pen, Ranma began scribbling on the map, marking the proper position on the paper as Youshu.

"Hey buddy! Just who the hell are you? What do you think you're doing here?" demanded one of the punks crossly. Apparently Ranma had overstayed what welcome he had and was being targeted by the local thugs who wanted to make a name for themselves. It seemed that the beads everyone wore really did single you out as being a tough guy.

"Hm?" Ranma looked up at the guy who yelled at him. He was some guy who wore a yellow jacket and a black hat and even had a beard, making him look older than the average high school student. He had a magenta bead on his ear, marking him as a fighter, but from what Ranma could tell he wasn't a very good one. "Keep your hat on, I'm just looking for one of the seven schools. This one wasn't it."

"Oh yeah?" asked the hat guy suspiciously, walking towards Ranma. "And just which school are you looking for?"

"Nanyo," Ranma answered, putting his map away. "You know which way that is?"

"Hnnn, must be another transfer. First the booby bombs and now this guy," the hat guy frowned before he raised his voice so Ranma could hear. "So you want to know where Nanyo is? Well, I can say that you won't be getting there from the afterlife!" Pointing out at Ranma with a deadly serious frown on his face, he shouted, "Get him!"

The united outcry from the other thugs, Ranma was charged from all sides. The first thug raced at him with a crowbar, but didn't get a chance to even swing when Ranma's kick landed on his face and sent him flying backwards. Another thug tried his luck with a punch, but the pigtailed martial artist easily caught it before tossing him into one of the other thugs who crashed to the ground in a heap. Glancing over, Ranma spotted the hat guy backing away as more thugs continued running at him with their bare hands or simple weapons.

"Tsk!" Ranma growled before he leaped up, easily going over the heads of the other thugs and landing at the feet of the hat thug with the beard. Lashing out, Ranma grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and lifted him off of his feet, making the other thugs freeze. The yellow-shirted thug seemed pretty intimidated by his position alone, but Ranma's glare certainly finished up the intimidation tactics. "Okay pal, just who are you and why'd you have your goons attack me? What did I do?"

"Rrgh! My name's Hanno!" the thug growled. "You should know damn well why we'd attack you, jackass!"

"No I don't!" Ranma frowned, bringing Hanno's face closer. "Now start talking before I decide to take you all down on principle!"

"He means you seem like you're a new transfer to Nanyo."

The new voice was smooth and calm, catching Ranma's attention along with Hanno and the goon squad. Turning to the gates of the school, the thugs began to part as someone new began to enter the scene. He had tanned skin and long black hair which was tied up into braids which hung over his shoulders with a headband. He wore a white shirt and slightly saggy green pants with his hands in his pockets. On his left ear was a gold bead like Ranma's and sunglasses shielded his eyes. Unlike the other goons and thugs which populated the battlefield, this guy spoke of considerable skill, power, and experience. His actions likewise spoke of respect and style. He may have looked like a thug, but he was anything but.

"You guys think I'm transferring to Nanyo?" Ranma frowned. It figured. Once again the people he just met began to assume things about him and a whole lot of violence followed. Dropping Hanno onto his butt with a thud, he sighed. "I'm not transferring to any of the seven schools. I just wanted to check something which was happening in Nanyo." The thugs and punks began whispering to each other, mentioning things such as 'unaffiliated', 'another school' and such words.

"Is that so?" gold bead-bearing young man blinked. "Well, it seems we owe you an apology then. Hanno has a habit of doing stupid things."

"Hey!" Hanno cried, getting to his knees with a frown.

"Shut up!" Ranma snapped at the punk before looking back to the other young man. "So just who are you anyway?"

"Taishiji Shigi," the teenager answered as he pushed his sunglasses up with his finger before hiding his hand in his pocket again. "You?"

"Ranma Saotome," the pigtailed martial artist grinned.

"Well met," Taishiji nodded. "I notice that your blood seems to be boiling a little after just being attacked. Being attacked by low-ranked fighters probably doesn't doo much good for the warrior's spirit, does it?"

"No, it doesn't," Ranma shrugged, knowing the frustration of being attacked by weaklings who figured themselves the top dogs and thought they could beat anyone. He couldn't even compare half of his skills against such people and it left him feeling empty rather than excited like a real fight would. Unfortunately, since the battle with Saffron most of his fights left him feeling that way since the rivals had been attacking in groups driven by desperation rather than actually training to get better. "But I'm used to beating up people weaker than me since they just keep finding reasons to come after me."

"A shame then," Taishiji sighed, his stance telling of similar feelings of being unfulfilled when faced with inexperienced and low-level fighters. "Then I propose this. As part of my school's apology; we'll fight as equals and test our skills against one another and see how we stand."

"What?" Hanno shouted, getting to his feet. "Taishiji, you know Ryuyou won't-!"

"Sounds good," Ranma grinned, pushing the upset Hanno back onto his butt with a thud. The feeling he was receiving from Taishiji told him that the guy was an honest fighter and would stick to the unspoken fighter's code. It was a rare thing for Ranma to face such a foe since almost everyone he knew would try some kind of cheap trick in order to gain victory, even if they came to regret having to rely on such things in the end. Dropping his bag on the ground, he took a stance as the other thugs made room between him and Taishiji. "Ready when you are."

"Good," Taishiji grinned, slipping his hands from his pockets and raising his fists. "Shall we begin?"

Grinning, Ranma led the first attack, racing past stunned thugs who almost didn't see him before he lashed out with a kick. Taishiji, despite not looking like a martial artist, managed to see the attack and raise his leg, blocking the blow. Acting quickly, he retaliated with a punch which Ranma escaped by leaning backwards to stay out of reach from. At the same time, he kicked upwards, aiming at Taishiji's chin. The long-haired teen jerked his head to the side to avoid it, but gave up his sure footing to do so. Ranma capitalized on the move by bouncing back up with his hands, ready to punch at his opponent. However, Taishiji's loose standing wasn't as loose as it first seemed as he suddenly regained his standing and shot a punch of his own. The two fists met with a smashing force which caused the ground to shatter into chucks and force both fighters back several feet, their feet skidding across the dirt.

Several of the lower fighters had been knocked over by the force since they were too close, but Ranma and Taishiji were both still standing. Both were panting, not having been expecting such recoil from their punches, but they weren't done yet.

"Man, you are good!" Ranma grinned, laughter in his voice.

"You too. This is getting fun," Taishiji grinned.

That was all that was said before the two charged at each other once again. Ranma moved for some grappling moves in attempts to throw off Taishiji's punching style, but the braided teen seemed to have experience with such opponents and was able to slip through some of the grapples or dodge them entirely. Dodging one such grapple, Taishiji shot out with another punch. This time it was able to graze Ranma's side, making the pigtailed fighter wince as even with a glancing blow, the force of the punch managing to bring some pain. However, Ranma Saotome never took a hit without returning it with interest. As Taishiji's glancing blow connected, he lashed out with a kick of his own which crashed against the tanned teen's left arm, making him wince before Ranma pushed away from him again.

Ranma grimaced as he checked his side. It was probably going to leave a bruise, but it was going to make his muscles stiffen and probably not in a small way if the jolt of pain he felt was any sort of indication. On the other side, Taishiji was feeling his arm echoing the pain from the kick and already stiffening. It would cut the effectiveness of his left punch by about half until the feeling returned but at the speeds the two were fighting at, that might be too long. Still, both fighters had to agree that it was a most fulfilling fight.

"Give up yet?" Ranma snickered.

"Not even close," Taishiji grinned.

With another yell, both fighters charged at each other again.

* * *

**Nerima**

"What? Why not?"

The source of the commotion in the Tendo home this time came from Nabiki's room. Inside, the middle daughter was working on some paperwork while her younger sister was gaping at her in disbelief from the door. A few moments before, Akane had entered, intending on getting information about where Ranma was going and where his relatives lived out of her sister. Nabiki rarely denied Akane information about the pigtailed boy if for no other reason than to stir the pot and reap benefits such as money or just for plain amusement. However, far from getting the information she wanted, Nabiki had stonewalled Akane's request.

"Because this time Ranma has a really good reason to go and he didn't want anyone from the Fiancée Brigade or his rivals following him, getting in the way, and making the whole thing that much worse in the process," Nabiki replied, looking up from her desk. "You have to admit that whenever you all try to follow him you end up making a pretty big mess out of just about anything."

"It wouldn't happen so much if he just wouldn't bring those hussies along all the time," Akane huffed, crossing her arms. Nabiki observed that her sister had conveniently forgotten that she had helped make a bad situation worse in the past. Such incidents included giving those diet pills to Ranma while he was pretending to be Picolet's fiancée and not telling him what they were or when she ate that super soba and had went on a destruction spree, thinking she could beat anybody while ignoring the warnings about the side-effects. "Now come on, we're sisters! You should at least be able to tell me!"

"You can't keep a secret to save your life," Nabiki retorted. "Once somebody asks you enough about it, you lose your temper and shout it loud enough for everyone in the district to hear. Don't try to deny it either, I have plenty of evidence on tape."

"I am not that bad," Akane frowned grimly.

"Oh, yes you are," Nabiki snickered. "Face it, Ranma wanted to do this alone and you aren't his keeper or the one holding his leash despite what you think and what Daddy and Mr. Saotome like to believe since they got onto this marriage bandwagon. Despite what you may think and what I may do while he lives under our roof, he does have the right to a little privacy."

"That's big coming from you!" Akane frowned.

"Hey, what he does outside of the house is his business," Nabiki shrugged. "It's not my fault he makes such a public spectacle of it all the time."

"Traitor," Akane growled as she stomped out of the room and down the hall, her footsteps making the lights shake as she went.

"Another day, another impending tantrum," Nabiki sighed as she returned to her papers. "Maybe she really is getting out of control."

* * *

**Youshu**

"Man, apology accepted," Ranma grinned as he and Taishiji met once again. Both he and the tanned teen were scuffed up, dirty, and more than a little bruised but they were both grinning despite whatever pain they were in. The fighters of Youshu around them were gaping after what they had seen and were still seeing. Both of the fighters had given their all and managed to really take the fight to a rarely seen level. The fight had taken only a short while thanks to the speeds the two were moving at, but it didn't end until Taishiji had been knocked over by a punch to his solar plexus. Rather than be upset, the two of them ended up laughing about it.

"Glad to hear it," Taishiji grinned. "You know, Youshu could always use another fighter like you."

"Yeah, but I think a guy like you is wasted on this place," Ranma shrugged. "Still, I have to get going and find Nanyo. See you around?"

"Sure," Taishiji nodded. "Remember the offer is here though."

"Got it," Ranma nodded, retrieving his pack and slinging it over his back. "See ya!"

Waving, Ranma set off in the direction of the next school. He had been surprised that someone of Taishiji's calibre was involved in the gang war which was in the Kanto region. However, he couldn't deny that it had been fun to finally fight someone honestly with nothing of real importance at stake. Sure, there was pride but no one was trying to force him to fight for his freedom, one fiancée or another, his life, or because of something his father did and shoved responsibility off to his son. Best of all, he managed to give it his all and still had not been able get away unscathed. Taishiji gave as good as he got, making Ranma's adrenaline surge and make him grin in a way he hadn't in years; euphoria. He finally got to fight for the sheer enjoyment he got from the martial arts.

"Man, this place is great!" Ranma laughed, leaping onto a streetlight. "Wonder what the next school is going to be like."

* * *

**Hokkaido**

"Achoo!" one Ryoga Hibiki sneezed as he trekked through the sandy beaches thinking he was on his way to Tokyo. Frowning, he looked up at the sky. "Dammit! Ranma must be feeling good about something! That's the only reason why I'm sneezing in the middle of summer! It has to be! DAMN YOU RANMA! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

* * *

**Kanto**

"Achoo!" Ranma sneezed, landing on the ground from his rooftop jump. Not noticing the people gaping at him, he rubbed his nose. "Man, someone must be talking about me. Probably one of the rivals, too. Cursing my name once again most likely." Shrugging off the thought of someone no doubt planning him bodily harm, Ranma continued walking.

He had managed to cover some considerable distance between Youshu and the next school he had been hoping to identify since roofhopping cut down the travel time that walking or even the bus would have needed to go anywhere. With any luck, it would be Nanyo but that was only a one in six chance of happening and his luck always sucked. Still, he had to at least try. Checking his map as he walked, he turned a corner and dodged someone who was running to get wherever it was they needed to go before he spotted his destination. It was the second of the seven schools and actually looked more like a respectable place. While Youshu held the name of a private school, it didn't really look like one. This school on the other hand actually did look like a private school. It was clean, the students in their uniforms looked well-dressed and somewhat stylish, and the entire place seemed respectable. It just served to make Ranma think it was a school for upper class folks even if it probably wasn't like that.

"Okay, now which of the seven is this one?" Ranma asked as he approached the front gate. Students began to take notice of him and several frowned as they spied the gold bead hanging around his neck. Again, the pigtailed martial artist didn't notice that as he finally found the sign. "Seito Private School. Damn." Rolling his eyes in annoyance, Ranma pulled out his map and marked the second spot as Seito.

"Um, excuse me?"

Ranma looked up from his map to see a girl talking to him. She wore the Seito uniform and had long brown hair done up in two ponytails with large glasses on her face. She was definitely cute in a sweet and innocent kind of way, but her most notable feature was probably her bust, possibly bigger than his girl form's. Still, there was something about her that Ranma's senses were telling him screamed power. It served to force Ranma to put his guard up despite how gentle and unassuming the girl seemed.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Are you lost? Are you trying to find the main office?" the girl asked. Somehow, her own guard seemed to rise despite her appearing to have no ability in the martial arts, but…Ranma had learned the hard way that looks could always be deceiving.

"Oh, no," Ranma denied with a shake of his head. "I was looking for Nanyo Academy and ended up here. Do you think I could ask you for some directions?" he asked hopefully, but it quickly ended when he felt a surge of aggression coming at him from behind, fast!

"GET AWAY FROM RYUUBI!"

Ranma immediately moved into action, dropping his pack and spinning on the spot to catch an incoming punch from a rather pissed off girl, one that reminded him way too much of a certain uncute tomboy from back in Nerima. She was shapelier that Akane to be sure and had brown hair which was a little longer than hers, but her attitude was a dead ringer for the youngest Tendo. Ranma could already tell that this girl had a habit of jumping to conclusions and not bothering to figure out if she was even right or not later. She also wore the Seito female uniform, indicating that she was from the same school, probably someone who knew the glasses girl. The bead on her ear just marked her out as one of the local fighters too.

"What the-?" Ranma blinked as the girl glared murderously at him. "Hey, what did I do?"

"Shut up and die!" the girl snarled, pulling back before going for another charge. "I won't let you touch our leader!"

"Chou-san!" the glasses girl gasped.

Ranma blocked another quick attack from the girl as their fight spilled onto the school property. The girl was quick, and reasonably skilled, but she definitely wasn't at his level. Grabbing another incoming punch, he grabbed the front of the girl's uniform and tossed her over his shoulder and onto the dirt with a loud thud. He had hoped that it would be enough to discourage her, but she was already on her feet in a flash and unleashing a combo of kicks aimed at Ranma's torso and face.

'_Has better battle instincts that the tomboy anyway,_' Ranma thought as he backed away from the flurry of kicks, dodging several of them as he did so. Normally Akane would have went for her usual 'charge at the target and hit it as hard as she could' plan. This girl knew way more moves than Akane did and when one didn't work, she would try something else as revealed when she tried to attack low with a sweep kick after rolling towards Ranma.

"Gonna have to do better than that!" Ranma teased, stopping the kick with his foot before kicking under her leg and knocking the angry girl on her back.

"Ow! Dammit!" the girl cursed as she attempted to stand back up again, but her legs were kicked out from beneath her, putting her on her back with the pigtailed martial artist standing above her, leaving absolutely no room for openings in her position.

"Now, are you going to calm down?"

"Screw you!" the girl shouted, kicking at the ground, using the force to slide backwards so she could leap back to her feet. "I'm going to kick your ass no matter how many flashy moves you have!"

"Haven't seen you show any kind of ability that could let you do that," Ranma frowned, unimpressed with her attitude and her skill level. Her moves were respectable, but they weren't anything that he would have looked twice at.

"Why you-!" the girl snarled. "You're gonna pay for that!"

"Then you'd better bring a butt-load of skill I haven't seen yet since you don't seem like anything special," Ranma taunted, making the short-haired girl practically seethe in anger from her position on the ground. However, her snarl quite suddenly turned into a smirk for some reason.

"Then maybe I can show you a thing or two," a new voice spoke from behind.

Ranma's eyes widened as his danger senses went off like a fire alarm. Forgetting his current opponent at the moment, he ducked and rolled, just dodging a naginata which had been aimed at his neck. As it was, his pigtail was several hairs shorter but it was better that his head vacating his shoulders. Skidding across the sandy dirt and coming to a stop several feet away, Ranma turned to see just who it was that had attacked him.

She was tall, taller even than his male form by a few inches. Her body was toned and taunt, showing intense training in the martial arts. She had tanned skin and long dark hair which almost touched the ground and held together with only a silver hair ornament. Slightly hidden behind her hair was one of the beads which fighters in the area wore, this one being silver. She had a Setio uniform on, but the skirt and top seemed short, revealing her long legs and her flat stomach. In her glove-covered hands was a real naginata which had a dragon's head on the top with a blade coming out of its mouth. Most people would look at her and assume that she was a very sexy and exotically beautiful girl or that the school hadn't been able to get a uniform for a girl of her height. However, Ranma suspected that she wore the modified uniform so to keep a full range of motion since some clothes had a habit of restricting movement. More than that, he could tell that this girl was a very powerful fighter, probably one of the best he had seen in a long time.

"You know, attacking from behind isn't exactly what I'd call fair," Ranma frowned as he stood up.

"True, but an attack on our school means we don't have the luxury of playing nice," the girl replied with a stoic stare. "So, just who are you? Which school are you with? Rakuyo? Youshu? Yoshuu?"

"My name's Ranma Saotome," the pigtailed martial artist replied. "I'm not with any of the seven schools. I was just looking for Nanyo and ended up here. I was going to ask for directions when your tomboy little friend playing in the dirt there tried to jump me for some reason."

"Oh?" the tall girl asked with narrowed eyes. Glancing at the girl in the dirt, but making sure to keep Ranma in her sights, she asked, "Is this true Chouhi?"

"He's an unknown fighter who was getting close to Ryuubi!" the tomboy, Chouhi Ekitoku, snapped as she rose from the ground. "If we don't know them then they're a threat to our leader! Of course I'd attack them but this guy just didn't want to go down!"

"As if I'd lose to a tomboy like you!" Ranma teased.

"What was that?" the Chouhi girl snarled, turning to Ranma.

"Enough!" the tall girl called out, bringing attention back to her. Her narrowed eyes were on Ranma once again. "Since you claim to be unaffiliated, we will have to keep you here until we can be sure you're not here to attack us or trying to assassinate our leader."

Ranma sighed at the proclamation, rubbing his eyes, "Look, if I wanted to hurt you people I would have done a lot worse to your friend than just make her eat dirt. I have got to get to Nanyo fast and I don't have time to play twenty questions with everyone who thinks I'm part of this little war. Now, please let me leave. I don't want to make any enemies here, least of all out of you, but I will fight my way out if it comes down to it."

"Ha! Good luck with that!" Chouhi laughed, her hands balled up on her hips. "Kanu here is one of the best fighters in all of Kanto! You try to fight her and you'll just be a smear on the ground! Even by some miracle you do manage to win then you'll have to deal with the likes of me, Chuo'un and all of the other fighters here!"

Ignoring the bragging Chouhi, much to her ire, Ranma turned his attention back to the naginata-wielding girl, "Kanu, huh? That's your name?"

"Yes. I am Kanu Unchou and I do hold the reputation for being one of Kanto's top fighters," the girl replied with a curt nod. "I'd really prefer if you come along quietly, but if you truly do intend to fight your way out of here then be warned I will be the one to ensure your failure."

Ranma smirked, his blood beginning to grow hot again at the prospect of fighting this girl. Despite his father's intentions, Ranma had no problems fighting girls. After the experiences he had fighting the likes of Kiima, Shampoo, Ukyo, and other female martial artists, it was quite clear that Genma's views on women were nothing but a load of bull, much like almost everything else he claimed to have wisdom on. Ranma just had a problem fighting weaklings since they didn't bring a thrill to the martial arts much like Taishiji said in their fight and he had to work hard so not to hurt them seriously rather than enjoy a good fight. Kanu's stance spoke novels about her skill and it made Ranma grow excited. He knew he could have just waited to prove that he was no threat to Seito, but he didn't want to waste any more time when Hakufu could be caught up in the middle of some brawl with people who were on Kanu's level.

…okay, he just wanted to see how good Kanu was too.

"Ready when you are then, Kanu," Ranma answered as he shifted into a stance.

Kanu eyed Ranma's stance and took one of her own, raising her naginata up. A hush fell across the yard as the two combatants stood across from one another. Chouhi seemed to be anticipating on a smackdown if the smirk was anything to go by, but the glasses girl from before seemed upset and afraid. Everyone else who was witnessing the event was keeping their distance, no doubt wanting to keep out of striking range of Kanu's weapon of choice.

A breeze blew through the silent field, neither Ranma nor Kanu making any move towards one another. A leaf drifted down from one of the nearby trees and seemed to be headed for the ground between the two fighters. The leaf drifted down so closely it could have touched the ground if positioned correctly, but in a flash, it was suddenly shredded as both fighters seemed to vanish before reappearing in front of each other, Kanu's naginata being blocked by Ranma's kick. A thunderous crash echoed out, sending dust in all directions and forcing the audience to shield their eyes. Neither Ranma nor Kanu stood still long as they began striking at one another, but was finding that it was like trying to hit through an invisible wall with all of the counterstrokes and blocks being used.

Kanu felt a bead of sweat drip down her face as she blocked blow after blow with her own strikes being blocked. She hadn't anticipated her opponent to be able to get so close to her while she wielded her usual weapon. Up in such close quarters like this, it was being more of a liability rather than a help. She would have to do something if she wanted to gain the upper hand against this pigtailed fighter. Twisting her naginata, she swung once again, anticipating a block. She wasn't disappointed as Ranma blocked the blow and used an upward kick in an attempt to knock the weapon from her hands. Rather than try to keep her grip, she allowed the naginata to be kicked from her hands before it landed in the dirt with its blade sticking into the ground. Far from stunned, Kanu took advantage of the opening and smashed her elbow into Ranma's chest with considerable force.

The pigtailed boy grunted and skidded across the open area, however with some distance between them, Kanu could see that he had shifted into the Karate's Goutai Hou, taking the blow with ease. Oh she knew he would be feeling the blow, but the amount of damage done wouldn't have been as much as she had first thought.

"You let me kick the weapon so to make an opening for yourself," Ranma grinned, his voice slightly strained from the painful blow.

"Yes, even if you managed to spot my attack and shift your position," Kanu nodded, taking her usual unarmed stance. "You sound impressed."

"Impressed? I think I'm in love," Ranma teased, taking a new attack stance.

"Uh?" Kanu blinked. The comment managed to throw her off guard and if one were standing close enough, they would have been able to see her cheeks tinge red, but her tan managed to hide it at the distance everyone was standing. Dismissing the blush, she reaffirmed her composure. "That's very flattering but it won't stop this fight."

"I'd be disappointed if it did," Ranma grinned.

Kanu couldn't help but let a smile of her own appear. If this fighter was trying to attack the leader of Seito or another fighter in their ranks then he was using very odd tactics. The casual way he was talking to her and not even going for one crippling or even lethal attack lent credence to his claims that he wasn't looking for trouble and was in fact looking for a different school. Of course, the fight was becoming too entertaining to let it just stop now.

"Then let's continue," she smiled.

"Gladly!" Ranma grinned, clenching his fists.

Charging at Kanu once again, Ranma had to admit that this was the most relaxed fight and conversation he had ever had with a girl. Well, even if she first thought that he was there to hurt someone but bad first impressions were pretty common with him.

* * *

**Nerima**

"RANMA YOU PERVERT!"

The passerby on the streets of the second-weirdest district in Japan flinched away as one Akane Tendo just suddenly screamed out and smashed a bench which was painted red with her mallet. No one was sure why she just did that, but everyone decided to steer clear of the short-tempered girl just in case she was beginning to lose all control of her temper at long last. Staring at the bench she just destroyed while people scurried past her, Akane couldn't help but blink at what she had just done.

"Huh?" she pondered. She wasn't sure why, but she was positive that Ranma was doing something perverted at the moment or otherwise her instincts wouldn't have made her lash out like that. Frowning, she recalled her mallet. "That pervert. I bet he's molesting some innocent girl or one of his floozies!"

Not noticing people giving her a very wide berth, Akane began heading towards the Nekohaten to try and demand information out of Cologne or Shampoo since they seemed to be the ones most likely to know simply out of what they were capable of and how much they had invested in their chase after him.

What she didn't know was that as she had lost her temper, Shampoo and Ukyo both snapped their own cooking implements for some reason but didn't know why.

* * *

**Seito**

The collected students of Seito were staring with open mouths as they watched one of their top fighters, Kanu Unchou, take on a self-proclaimed unaffiliated fighter Ranma Saotome. At first they thought that the unknown boy was going to get his ass beaten. Instead, they watched what was probably the first time they had seen their best fighter try so hard in a battle. As much as Kanu fought, the pigtailed fighter just seemed to roll with the attacks and return several of his own, managing to even hit Kanu during the exchanges.

Not that Ranma was getting away unscathed. Kanu had managed to strike him several times; leaving bruises which would no doubt take a while to heal. His clothes were scuffed up and he was favouring his right side slightly, but the huge grin on his face just wouldn't leave. For him, this was what martial arts were about, testing your skill against someone who was on your level, getting better and gaining experience in the process. There were no childish rivalries or people claiming revenge for stupid reasons. Your opponent didn't throw honour in your face so to try and make you do things their way or whine and/or lose their tempers when they took a hit, missed, or were losing. This was just two people who took pleasure in the art of battle. Of course, it didn't hurt that Kanu was very attractive either. Despite proof to the contrary, Ranma was not immune to or afraid to accept feminine charms. He just knew what would happen to him if he allowed himself to fall for the wrong girl like the girls of the Fiancée Brigade back home: kiss his freedom goodbye and hello to a life of enslavement to a woman who wouldn't have anything done which wasn't her way.

Both he and Kanu landed on the ground in a crouch. Kanu was breathing slightly heavy as was Ranma. She was sporting a few bruises which were easily visible thanks to her outfit being a bit more revealing than most school uniforms. However, she had a small smile on her face, indicating that she too was enjoying the fight.

"You certainly weren't boasting about your skill," she complimented.

"Neither were you," Ranma grinned. "Still, as much as I would prefer to see everything you've got, I still have to get to Nanyo. Let's say we finish this?"

"I suppose all good things must come to an end," Kanu nodded. "The next strike it is."

Nodding, Ranma shifted his stance, as did Kanu, both preparing themselves for the finishing blow. The audience was still, not wanting to break the moment between the two fighters. Another breeze wafted through the schoolyard. This time, a leaf didn't fall, but instead Ranma and Kanu burst into their speed again, charging at one another, ready to finish the attacks. Only the top-ranked fighters in the school could see what was going on clearly, and it was an impressive sight indeed.

WHAM!

Kanu and Ranma met in the centre of their battlefield, both having launched kicks at one another. Both blows had landed, digging into the sides of their targets. Ranma grimaced from the blow, once again feeling just how strong Kanu was from the power of her blow and likewise impressed at her speed, having managed to slip through his guard, probably at the same time he made his own kick which created that small opening in the first place. Of course, Kanu had likewise took her own hit, grimacing as she felt Ranma's foot bury itself into her own side. Feeling this kind of strength made her lose any lingering doubt that he was as good as he said he was. Both fighters knew that neither they nor their opponent were going to fall, so…

"A draw?" asked Ranma.

"I think so," Kanu nodded.

"Good because that's…going to leave a mark," The pigtailed fighter grunted as he brought his leg back and stumbled slightly.

"For me as well," Kanu grimaced, taking her own leg back. "I'm surprised my ribs didn't break from that kick."

"Hey, I'm not here to make enemies," Ranma chuckled. "Its bad form to break a new friend's ribs isn't it?"

"I suppose it is," Kanu chuckled. Inhaling with a wince to her ribs, the tall young woman stood straight. "I think it's safe to say that you aren't holding malicious intent towards Seito at the moment. If you were I dare say with the amount of skill in your possession you would have done worse to Chouhi than knock her down and would have probably tried to do worse to Ryuubi."

"Told you so," Ranma snickered. "So am I free to go?"

"By all means," Kanu gestured to the front gate. "Although I do hope you consider joining us here at Seito. Having someone of your calibre here would be beneficial to us all. Having you here personally would be rather pleasant to me."

"Tempting," Ranma smiled. "I'll think about it. I still have to get to Nanyo to find who I'm looking for. After that, who can say?" With a smile, Ranma grabbed his pack and walked towards the gates of Seito before vanishing around a corner. Kanu watched him go with a small smile on her face, wondering if she could perhaps add some 'incentive' to gain Ranma's interest in not only joining with Seito, but to spend more time with her.

* * *

**Nerima**

Nodoka stiffened as an odd sensation overcame her. It felt like a tingle which would run down her spine but it wasn't the kind she usually felt when Genma had done something stupid and ended up causing yet another mess for the family honour before trying to convince everyone that it was Ranma's fault that it was happening. This one made her feel excited in a way she had only rarely felt before. It felt similar to the tingle she got when her son would gain the attention of yet another fine young woman, but this felt stronger than that. While the previously mentioned tingle seemed to only affect one side, this one felt like it had her entire spine racing with the sensation. At first, she didn't know what to make of it. However, after a few moments of consideration…

Her manly son had finally found a girl he liked!

"MY! SON! IS! MANLY!" Nodoka cheered in delight as she went into her victory dance, waving her fans around, laughing about how the grandchildren she so desired would finally be arriving soon.

* * *

**Kanto**

"After all that, I forgot to ask for directions," Ranma grumbled as he trekked along a beach towards the next school. He had been in so much pain and adrenaline from his fight with Kanu, he had completely forgotten to ask which of the seven schools was Nanyo. Well, at least it wasn't a total loss since Kanu was an awesome fighter and dare he say it, exotically beautiful. He wouldn't have minded seeing more of her in the future…so long as he was sure the fiancées and the rivals were nowhere nearby. He had a feeling that Kanu would not treat unprovoked attacks on her as lightly as he did.

The sun was setting over the water and Ranma set his pack down with a sigh. By this point now, Nanyo was going to be empty save for probably some janitorial staff or some teachers with all of the students having gone home. Hakufu had told him that she was staying at Kokin's house, but Ranma had no clue where that was. He had only been there once before and was too young to remember directions like that. Trying to contact Hakufu probably wouldn't help either since she had just moved to the area and likely wouldn't know any directions save for how to get from Kokin's house to Nanyo and back again. His best bet in finding her would have to be getting to Nanyo during the day while all the students were there. Although, if the reception he received at Youshu and Seito were any indication, he would probably have to fight someone there too.

"Might as well set up camp for the night," Ranma shrugged as he began fiddling with his pack so he could get his camping gear out. It was all brand new since the last time he went on a training trip, the wrecking crew followed him in an attempt to either kill him or force him to marry one girl or another. The all-out brawl which ensued destroyed all of his gear and forced him to save up so he could get replacements. He made sure to beat up the rivals extra hard for their idiocy and ignored the fiancées for a good two weeks for that little stunt.

Pulling out a sleeping bag, Ranma got a fair distance from the shoreline so not to get splashed in his sleep before he slipped into the item and started catching some Z's. He wanted to get an early start in his search for Nanyo the next day.

* * *

**Rakuyo**

Rakuyo High School on the outside looked like a very prestigious school which had very modern facilities and up to date supplies and materials. It was a live-in school and as such provided rooms for their students, some of which lived in dorms while others had their own private rooms on campus. The school also had expansive greenhouses which played host to a number of beautiful flowers and even watermelons.

These greenhouses also played host to the leader of Rakuyo.

Inside one such greenhouse, in a round circular section of the path, a young man and two young women were present. The first young woman had tanned skin and aquamarine green hair which was done up into two ponytails. Hanging from her ear was one of the beads which all of the fighters would wear and it was coloured gold. Her figure could only be called bombshell and she wore the skirt and jacket of Rakuyo. However, her cleavage and rather large breasts were revealed through the jacket opening, easily revealing that she was not wearing a top underneath, possibly not even wearing a bra either. Her name was Ryofu Hosen, one of the top fighters of Rakuyo.

The second girl likewise wore the Rakuyo uniform, albeit completely rather than what she wanted like Ryofu did. She had long black hair which was tied in two ponytails which reached down her back. She also wore a pair of glasses over her eyes and her ensemble was completed with a silver bead on her right ear. Her name was Kaku Bunwa, a lower class fighter than Ryofu, but she had a mind for strategy which she used to become the leader's number 3.

Both girls were sitting respectfully in seiza position, sitting on their knees with their legs underneath them. With both girls with his head on Kaku's lap was a young man. He wore the boys uniform for Rakuyo and was contentedly laying his head on Kaku's lap with an orchid in his hands while Kaku rested her fingers in his hair. The girl obviously didn't mind the closeness as she attended to him. Oddly, the boy was wrapped in numerous bandages on his face, arms, and possibly other places on his body. He also had short brown hair and a bead on his ear, but his was coloured blood red. His name was Totaku Chuuei, the leader of Rakuyo and probably one of the cruellest of all the leaders of the seven schools. At the moment, he was eyeing his orchid while Kaku was giving him a report.

"So this fighter claims to be unaffiliated?" asked Totaku in a pleasant voice which hid his cruel nature.

"Yes. His name is Ranma Saotome according to our reports from Youshu and he was looking for Nanyo. Apparently he didn't know he was at Youshu until he saw the sign," Kaku answered. "From what I was told, he doesn't know where Nanyo is and is searching each of the schools to try and find it."

"Hmmm. Interesting…and a bit amusing," Totaku smiled. "And you say he fought Taishiji and managed to defeat him?"

"He did, but neither of them was going all out since it was supposedly a friendly fight," Kaku nodded. "After the fight finished he left to continue his search. Agents we've stationed near Seito reported seeing him there. Again, he seemed to be searching for Nanyo and found that school instead."

"I see," Totaku nodded. "Was he challenged there too?"

"Yes," Kaku nodded. "Apparently he talked to Ryuubi Gentoku and Chouhi attacked him under the impression that he was a threat to her. He managed to dispatch the girl in short time, but then Kanu appeared and challenged him. Both battled for some time before it came down to a draw when both fighters managed to strike each other hard enough to mess with their perceptive abilities. Somehow, it was determined he wasn't a threat to them during the fight and Kanu let him go."

"How interesting," Totaku grinned, crushing the orchid in his hand. "Managing to fight Taishiji and win before fighting Kanu Unchou to a standstill and still being able to walk away under his own power. Where was he heading last?"

"According to reports, towards Kyosho Academy," the Number 3 replied. "He probably doesn't know which school it is and if the pattern continues he's probably going to have a fight on his hands."

"Now that would be interesting," Totaku grinned. Turning his head, he looked over to his Number 2. "Ryofu, would you be so kind as to find this Ranma Saotome? Let me know what he's up to out there and report back to me."

"Yes sir," the busty girl nodded before she stood up and headed for the exit of the greenhouse.

Watching Ryofu go, Totaku's smile didn't lessen, "Such an interesting fellow this Ranma Saotome is. How I hate loose ends though."

"We'll take care of it soon enough sir," Kaku reassured her leader.

"Hm," the bandaged boy shrugged, getting comfortable in Kaku's lap once again.

* * *

**Kyosho**

"Hey, who the hell is this guy?"

It was a new day in Kanto and the sun was shining. However, the tension was in the air over at the seaside school of Kyosho. On the nearby and all but private beach which was just behind the school, three students from the school were staring at the sleeping bag which contained a pigtailed guy who wore a gold bead around his neck.

The first student was a tanned guy with shaggy brown hair. He wore a white shirt with a green jacket complete with kahki shorts and sandals. He wore a white bead on his ear but despite this he was a pretty tough fighter in his own right. His name was Kakoton Genjou even though most people just called him Ton-chan for short. He was a pretty strange guy who preached about the basics of fighting a lot and even went out of his way to repair the damages caused in his fights to the surrounding area.

With him was a tall guy who probably was one of the few who wore the black school uniform of Kyosho. He had spiked blonde hair which stuck up and had a gold bead on his left ear. His name was Kakuka Houkou and he was a top-ranked fighter of Kyosho. He was a generally easygoing type of person but it certainly didn't take away from his skills.

Finally was the last of the trio. He wore a gray undershirt with an open white button-up t-shirt with kahki shorts and sandals. He had shoulder length brown hair and slightly tanned skin, hinting at a seaside life if anything else. On his left ear was a silver bead, but the color did not properly reveal his true power. His name was Sousou Motoku, the leader of Kyosho and the history of his name revealed his right to rule…along with one other ability he had which only two others had.

Sousou had a habit of napping whenever he could and used the beach behind Kyosho as one of his favourite spots. Kakuka and Kakoton were both the expected bodyguards a guy of his position usually had when he went anywhere. However, when they got there they found someone else using the beach instead.

"Any idea who he is?" asked Kakoton.

"No clue," Kakuka shook his head.

"Well, get him out of here I guess," Sousou sighed, scratching his head.

"Right!" Kakoton grinned. Dashing up to the sleeping fighter, he reared back his leg for a (reasonably) gentle kick to wake up the sleeper. "Hey! Wake up man!"

"Hnn.." the sleeping fighter mumbled, suddenly turning in his sleep at the last moment as Kakoton's kick completely missed him, causing the boy to yelp as he suddenly lost his balance and fall on his butt. Kakuka and Sousou both blinked at the sight, not expecting the sudden movement.

"Just luck," Kakuka sighed.

"…" Sousou frowned.

"Ow," Kakoton grumbled, getting to his knees. Clenching his fist, he reared back for a punch to the sleeper's head. "Hey! I said WAKE UP!"

"Un…"

The sleeper suddenly shifted in his sleep, dodging the punch to his head, rolling towards his attacker. Kakoton's punch easily missed and dug into the sand. Annoyed, Kakoton reared back for another punch, but it was suddenly cut short when the sleeping fighter curled up rather sharply, incidentally slamming his knees into the Kyosho student's stomach.

"URK!" Kakoton grunted, falling backwards, the breath driven from his lungs. "…ow!"

"What the-?" Kakuka blinked. "Is that guy awake?"

"No. He's still asleep," Sousou chuckled. "This guy must have trained so hard he can tell when attacks are coming in his sleep. Hell, he's even able to avoid them. That's pretty impressive. And here I thought all I had to look forward to was my usual nap after breakfast today."

"Zzz…whu….breakfast?" The sleeping fighter was suddenly roused from his sleep, sitting up and looking around as if he were still half asleep. Rubbing his eye, he looked around, seeing Kakoton getting up from the blow to his stomach and likewise spotting Kakuka and Sousou watching him with curiosity. With a yawn, he started speaking, "What the…? Who are you guys?"

"I'm Sousou Motoku, the leader of Kyosho Academy," the tanned leader spoke. "This is our beach you're on so just who the heck are you?"

"Me? Oh, name's Ranma Saotome," the pigtailed fighter replied, slipping out of his sleeping bag. Wrapping it up, he stuffed it back in his pack and stood up. "So you guys are from Kyosho? Where's that?"

"It's right behind you, you dummy!" Kakoton cried, pointing at the building which was opposite of the shoreline.

Ranma turned to where the fighter was pointing and saw the building which he claimed was Kyosho Academy. He definitely didn't recall seeing it the night before, but in his defence, the building was showing its back and the front was the only part which had the sign on it. Nodding, Ranma pulled out his map of the Kanto area before examining the map, looking for the area where Kyosho was. "Must have been further along than I thought. I thought Kyosho was farther away than this."

"We all make mistakes," Sousou shrugged, walking closer to Ranma with Kakuka sticking close in case things devolved into a fight. "So just what brings you our way anyway? You looking to join up or are you working for one of the other schools or something?"

"Neither," Ranma answered, marking the only seaside school as Kyosho on the map before turning his full attention onto Sousou. "I've got a relative who started at Nanyo yesterday. I heard about the whole war your school and six others are going through and decided to come and make sure if she was okay. Problem is my map doesn't tell me which of these damn schools are which. I ended up at Youshu and Seito yesterday looking for Nanyo."

"Youshu? That's under Rakuyo's control," Kakuka frowned. "They'll pick a fight with anyone who isn't on their side."

"Yeah, that Hanno jerk and his thugs seemed pretty quick to pick a fight," Ranma nodded. "At least until that Taishiji guy stopped them. He's a pretty cool guy. Awesome fighter too."

"Wait," Kakoton blinked. "You mean you actually picked a fight with Taishiji Shigi? Are you nuts man? Youshu may be weak, but he's one of the top fighters!"

"I can believe that. It was a great fight," Ranma grinned with a chuckle. "We were keeping it light, but I still managed to win. Still, as fun as fighting Taishiji was, Kanu was way tougher. I haven't fought anyone like her in a long time."

"Kanu. You fought Kanu Unchou from Seito too?" asked Sousou with a raised eyebrow. "Just how are you still alive much less in one piece?"

"Ah, I just convinced them that I wasn't trying to hurt anyone," Ranma shrugged. "All I'm really here for is to make sure my cousin is okay and probably train her up a bit so she can take care of herself before I head back home. Listen, do you think you guys could do me a favour and point out where Nanyo Academy is? I'm tired of finding the wrong schools and I don't want to pick fights with any of them unless they deserve it."

Sousou scratched his head, unsure if he should believe the pigtailed fighter's words but merely shrugged, "Sure. Let me see that map," Taking the map from Ranma's hands, Sousou looked it over and took Ranma's pen before beginning to mark sections of the map. "Okay, if you kept going like you were, you would have either hit Yoshuu or Rakuyo next. They're allies and connected to Youshu. They probably know to keep an eye out for you by now so I'd avoid them if you're serious about not picking fights. Nanyo is a bit further along."

"Thanks man," Ranma nodded, taking his map and pen back. "Okay, I'll be off then. Sorry about just intruding on your beach."

"It's okay. You didn't know," Sousou shrugged.

"Thanks. See ya!" Ranma grinned, taking his pack and dashing towards the path back up to the streets.

Watching him go, the three Kyosho students began to talk once he was out of hearing range. Kakoton started first, easily being the most energetic of the three, "Do you really think he took on Taishiji and Kanu and managed to survive?"

"Unlikely," Kakuka frowned. "If he did though, we might start considering trying to recruit him before the next Big Fighters Tournament. He'd be an asset."

"Yeah," Sousou agreed. "Before we try though, let's start getting some information on him and see if his story is true," suddenly yawning, the leader of Kyosho began heading to a sunny spot on the beach before lying down, resting his head on his arms. "In the meantime though, I'm going to catch some Zs."

* * *

Ranma continued on his trek, walking through the streets of the city as he looked over his map. He had been honest about wanting to avoid other schools since he didn't want to start anything with the local top dogs unless he had to. Of course, if Kanu and Taishiji's reputations were truly great, then the guys at the top probably already knew about him and were likely already asking questions. Most likely that would either end up in a 'pre-emptive' assault on him or some recruitment offers to join their side of the fight. Still, Ranma wasn't in Kanto to join up in the war, but to try and make sure Hakufu was safe.

Turning a corner, Ranma entered an alley. With a sigh, he pocketed his map, slipped his pack from his shoulders before letting it rest on the ground. Finally, he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "Are you going to follow me around like some stalker all day or are you just going to say what you want?"

There was silence in the alley at first but it didn't last long before someone leaped down from one of the shorter buildings, landing with a light tap. The person was female, wearing a school uniform which had a red blazer and a green skirt. She also wore socks which were bunched up slightly as the latest fashion statement and black shoes. Her skin was a sexy bronze, making Ranma wonder how popular the beaches of Kanto were. Her hair was a sea foam shade of green and her face was sensually mature for a high school girl. One aspect about her he tried not to gawk about was how her cleavage seemed to be squeezed together by her jacket and how it may be she wasn't wearing anything beneath it.

"Well, well, I didn't think I'd be spotted," the girl smirked. "When did you figure it out?"

"You started following me after I left Kyosho," Ranma answered. "I let you follow so we'd be able to get some privacy where none of the schools would try to interfere in case you were an enemy to one of them. Now, just who are you and why are you following me?"

"You know how to take charge. I think I like that," the girl continued to smirk sensually. "My name is Ryofu Hosen. I'm from Rakuyo High School. I was ordered to find you and see if the rumours about you were true. Youshu is under our school's control you know and we have to consider if an attack on them is going to end as an attack on us."

"They attacked me first," Ranma sighed. "I was just looking for Nanyo and ended up there. Hanno was the one who started everything. My fight with Taishiji was just a friendly match."

"Okay, I'll buy that. Hanno is pretty stupid." Ryofu nodded as she slowly walked towards Ranma. If it was to show she wasn't a threat or because she wanted to keep acting sexy he wasn't sure but he kept his mind calm just in case. Even he could admit this girl knew how to appear sexy to the extreme and if it weren't for his Soul of Ice mixed with his usual experience with girls from Nerima, he probably would have had jelly for a brain right then. "What really got our attention though was your little match with Kanu Unchou. She is one of the top ranked fighters out here and to hear someone managed to fight her to a draw in a serious fight, someone who no one has seen before, well, you can imagine we might get a little jumpy."

"I suppose," Ranma sighed. "I did fight Kanu, but that was only because her tomboy friend Chouhi attacked me first thinking I was some kind of threat to a girl named…Ryuubi, I think. Kanu intervened and we fought. You really don't know someone until you fight them in my experience so that was how I convinced Kanu I wasn't a threat. After that, she let me go and I left."

"Where you ended up at Kyosho," Ryofu nodded, stopping her stride so that she stood only half a foot away from Ranma. Keeping up her sensual smile, she began tracing a finger up and down Ranma's chest. "Hmmm, you know, hearing that those rumours about you are true just makes you all the more interesting. Care to go someplace for a while and…get to know each other a little bit?" she finished with a smoky look in her eyes.

Once again Ranma was faced with situation similar to what the Fiancée Brigade would try on him, but it was so much more tempting with Ryofu offering. Like Kanu, she was exotically beautiful and her appeal was made greater by the fact that she was a fighter. Still, she had openly admitted to coming from Rakuyo, the current top dogs who might have a problem with him taking on one of their guys in a fight and winning. For all he knew, Ryofu was trying to soften him up before taking him down or trying to convince him to join up with them. The former seemed more likely given the circumstances, but Ranma was always willing to give the benefit of the doubt with people he just met.

"Sorely tempted," Ranma replied, slipping slightly deeper into the Soul of Ice. "But I have to get to Nanyo to check on a few things first. After that, we'll see what happens."

"Fair enough," Ryofu shrugged, withdrawing her hand and her teasing touch. "If you every want to take me up on my offer though, you can find me at Rakuyo. Just ask around, they'll lead you right to me."

"I'll...keep it in mind," Ranma nodded, suppressing the urge to gulp.

"Good," the sensual girl smiled before she turned to leave. Casting her smoky gaze over her shoulder, she added, "See you around then Handsome," With a backhand wave, she walked away, vanishing around a turn out of the alley, her lovely hips and derriere swinging the whole way.

Ranma heaved a sigh as he got his normally dormant hormones under control. Seeing a beautiful girl who practically defined provocative or sexy wasn't anything new to him. Shampoo and Kodachi definitely filled that definition with how they dressed. No, what made both Kanu Unchou and Ryofu Hosen stand out so much was the way their eyes would see him. The Fiancée Brigade would always look at him in shallow lust, anger, disappointment, and above all else, judgement. They would always gaze at him, always judging him against whatever they wanted him to be in their lives. Ukyo and Shampoo always wanted a subservient husband, one for making kids and the other helping run a restaurant. Kodachi wanted her muscled dream man who would bow to her every whim and Akane just didn't seem to know what she wanted but still blew her top whenever Ranma didn't act like it.

Kanu and Ryofu were different. Both girls didn't hold any judgement in their eyes. They just had caution as they carefully eyed him to see if he was a threat or not. They didn't look at him like raw husband material or property ready to be claimed. They looked at him like an equal, a warrior, someone who they could take seriously. Those girls saw him on the same level they stood, not eternally above him because they were girls or had a so-called claim on his future. Being treated like an equal when almost everyone else he knew treated him like he was below them was something Ranma found very appealing in a girl. Most girls in Nerima either wouldn't go near him or saw him as below them in some way while most of the boys stayed back and admired his situation like it was paradise.

"Man the girls here are something," he sighed to himself before scratching his head. "Ah well, better keep going." Grabbing his pack, he slung it over his shoulder before heading back out to the streets and back on track for his journey to Nanyo.

* * *

Ryofu turned the corner Ranma watched her leave at before travelling down a street and stopping at one of the local bus stops. She may have acted cool and seductive, but inside she was cautious and observant. Ranma Saotome certainly had skill, being able to notice that she had been following him since he left Kyosho. Hearing about how he fought Taishiji and Kanu straight form his mouth certainly proved the rumours true, but the way he talked about the battles seemed like he was just talking about hanging out with his friends. She also noticed how he struggled not to stare at her cleavage when he first saw her. Most likely he was a virgin and that meant that there might be an opening in getting him to join up with Rakuyo if Totaku decided that he would make a good addition.

'_I might just volunteer in that case,_' Ryofu thought to herself with some amusement. While she really did prefer women over men most of the time, if she found a man who gained her interest enough, she would be doing the wild thing with him just as easily as she would with girls. So far only two men had earned her affections and only one of them really had it because he was so damn powerful and made her jumpy while the other she truly felt genuine affection for. Ranma Saotome, if things turned out well, could end up being number three.

Still, the way he positioned himself when he was talking to her…Ryofu saw very few openings to exploit and what few there were had been very small and well protected. Ranma had apparently suspected she may have searched him out for a fight in retaliation for what he did at Youshu. Not even when he got flustered over her assets did those openings begin to widen. He was ready to go at any time and if his skill was as great as he said, Ryofu doubted she would have an easy time about it.

"Definitely an interesting one," the busty girl smiled to herself as the bus began to approach.

* * *

The better part of the day was spent by Ranma heading over to Nanyo. He took care to avoid going near Rakuyo and Yoshuu since he didn't want to start anything with those schools unless the situation forced him to. He didn't have any money left for busses and while roofhopping was always an option, he didn't know the area well enough to do that for such a great distance and would just risk getting lost. As such, he had to take the long way there on the streets. By the time he got there, the sun was beginning to sink towards the horizon, turning the sky bright orange.

Nanyo Academy looked like a petty good school, again, one of those schools where stereotypical regular folks would get their kids to achieve good education and such. It was pretty clean cut and respectable on first impressions. One wouldn't have been sure that a war was going on involving the students of this school. In fact, they just would have thought that this was a perfectly normal high school with perfectly normal students.

The circle of thirty or more thugs around one shorter guy tended to say otherwise though.

"Figures," Ranma sighed, shrugging off his pack and tossing it to the side. Advancing on the group, he eyed their target. The guy in the middle seemed to be of average height and a lithe build, meaning he had speed more than muscle on his side. His stance spoke of skill in martial arts but how much remained to be seen. He had short dark hair which seemed almost blue in a way with a strand sticking out on top of his head. On his left ear was one of those beads, meaning the guy was a fighter, but this one was white. Still, something about him seemed pretty darn familiar. The face looked about the same and the hair was similar to a face of his past. It had been almost a decade, but Ranma was sure…

"OI!" he shouted loudly, catching the collected fighters' attention. Looking to the guy in the middle, Ranma continued. "You in the middle, the short guy. Are you Kokin Shuyu?"

"Huh?" the boy blinked. "Yes I am. Who are you? Did you get the Imperial Order too?"

"Imperial Order?" Ranma blinked, advancing on the group. "Hey, I just got here. Name's Ranma Saotome. Don't you remember me?"

"Saotome?" the boy, Kokin blinked, still keeping his guard up as the other fighters watched with confusion. Kokin likewise showed confusion until he eyes widened in shock. "Wait…RANMA! No way! What are you doing here?"

"Heard about the problems out here and decided to make sure if everyone was okay," the pigtailed fighter shrugged before he stopped in front of the group. "Speaking of that, you seem to be in something of a spot yourself. Need a hand?"

"Well…it would be appreciated, but…" Kokin admitted, watching the other fighters with trepidation.

"Hey," a fighter with a bandanna on his head frowned, stepping up in front of Ranma. "This is an Imperial Order for the destruction of Kokin Shuyu. Don't interfere or else we'll just do the same to you!"

"I'm shaking in my boots," Ranma frowned.

"Ranma…don't do anything stupid," Kokin frowned, fearing that he would get caught up in the upcoming fight.

"Then you can die too!" the bandanna fighter growled, launching his fist at Ranma with perhaps higher than average strength. It seemed that the blow would hit since Ranma wasn't moving, but that didn't last long. At the last moment, Ranma swerved around the attack, spun, and slammed his elbow into the fighter's stomach, "GAH!" The fighter slumped forward, his breath completely knocked from his lungs. He didn't have time to get it back though before Ranma's foot met his face and knocked him backwards onto his back, skidding in the dirt. Kokin and the collected fighters stared in surprise at what had just happened.

"Now," Ranma frowned, withdrawing his foot. "Are you thugs going to give this a second thought or do are some of you wanting to see just how many ways you can get your butts kicked?"

The fighters shivered slightly, not so much by the threat, but the show of skill and strangely enough, the gold bead hanging from Ranma's neck. Kokin himself seemed to finally notice it as well, his eyes widening at the sight of it. However, before he could really say anything about it, one of the fighters, one with long hair and sunglasses, decided that they had numbers on their side and shouted out loudly, "Kill them both!" The call rallied the enemy fighters and they all began charging at either Ranma or Kokin, fists and weapons at the ready.

The battle was on.

* * *

On the rooftop of Nanyo, one of the students watched the thugs begin to fight Kokin and Ranma…and be thoroughly routed by the both of them. He had shoulder length sandy brown hair and a rather handsome face. He wore the proper Nanyo uniform as well: white shirt, pants, yellow sleeveless sweater, red tie, and shoes. He was called Saji Genpou by the other students and was one of the Big Four of Nanyo, their best fighters. He was also something of a womanizer, but that was neither here nor there. At the moment, he eyed the new fighter who interrupted the order.

"Well, well, this was unexpected," he commented idly as he watched Ranma defeat a fighter with a five kick combo to a thug's vital points as if the guy was standing still with his arms wide open. "Still, it might be good to see just what this new guy can do. Nothing like free entertainment to get the blood flowing anyway."

His words may have been light-hearted and his posture relaxed, but his eyes were stern and sharp, indicating just how closely he was watching the battle and the new wild card.

* * *

WHAM!

"UGH!" the last fighter went down in a heap courtesy of Kokin's punch to the face. The blue-haired boy was breathing hard, resting his hands on his knees as he was hunched over slightly as he struggled to get his breath back. Over at the other end of the fight, Ranma was breathing fine, having dispatched the last of his own opponents not even a minute before Kokin did. The pigtailed boy himself looked around to see if there were anymore conscious fighters, but was satisfied to find none. They had all fought and had been beaten down, proving they at least had more balls than most thugs.

"All right Kokin," Ranma sighed, advancing on his cousin's cousin. "Just what the heck was all this about? What did that one guy mean by an Imperial Order?"

"He means…our leader…ordered it," Kokin panted. "Our leader Enjyutsu is the only one who can give orders like that. It was probably him who ordered all these fighters to attack me. Although, I certainly wasn't expecting to see you of all people to show up when those fighters appeared."

"Yeah, I'm full of surprises," Ranma sighed. "Okay, so where's Hakufu? Is she okay?"

"Uh…I'm not sure," Kokin frowned. He was silent for a moment before he gasped. "Wait, she said something about the locker room. She's probably there!"

"Then what are we waiting here for?" demanded Ranma. "This Enjyutsu jerk might have made one of those Imperial Orders against her too!"

"Right! Follow me!" Kokin gasped, taking off running towards the school. Ranma followed close behind, not knowing where anything in the school was. Both boys ran through the doors of the school before reaching the first staircase. "The locker room in on the third floor! If we hurry then she might still be there!" Running up the stairs, both boys were suddenly blocked by another Nanyo student who was leaning against the wall with his leg resting on the railing.

"Wipe away anyone who would interfere with the execution," he spoke, scratching his sandy brown hair. "That was part of the order too." The boy then looked down at both Kokin and Ranma. "That goes for anyone who would interfere. Not being part of our school doesn't make you immune from the order."

"Who's this guy?" Ranma asked with a frown. The guy may have acted like a slacker, but he had a kind of power radiating from him that put Ranma on edge. Martial arts wise, he was stronger than all of the thugs outside, but he wasn't near what he would have faced with the likes of Taishiji, Kanu, or Ryofu. Still, he would be able to beat Kokin black, blue, and bloody if the shorter boy used the extent of his skills outside.

"This is Saji Genpou, one of the Big Four here at Nanyo and one of the four who meet with Enjyutsu," Kokin answered. Looking up to Saji, he spoke, "Please let us through Saji! We have to get to Hakufu!"

"Sorry, can't do that. Orders are orders you know," Saji snickered, standing up straight. "Or…you can fight me to get past too. I don't mind," removing his hand from his pocket, he cracked his fingers, the noise echoing through the space. "Care to take me on?"

"Kokin, we don't have time for this guy," Ranma frowned, his own fists clenching. "I'll take him on. You go find Hakufu."

"Oh, you'll handle me so easily?" Saji snickered, bringing both his hands from his pockets.

"Compared to fighting the likes of Taishiji and Kanu, yeah, I'd say I can handle you pretty easy," Ranma smirked. For once, Saji's smirk slipped at the mention of two top-ranked fighters. Ranma spoke from his personal experience of fighting the two and from the sheer confidence in his voice, he hadn't lost either, something Saji was good at picking up in the actions of others. However, as Ranma began to advance, Kokin put his arm out in front of him. "Kokin?"

"Ranma, you go and find Hakufu," he frowned. "Once you get up the stairs, turn left and head to the end of the hall. That's where the locker room is and probably where Hakufu is too. I'll hold Saji off here while you get her."

"Kokin, this guy is out of your league!" Ranma hissed. "He'll pulverise you!"

"Yes, but you're more skilled than I am. I saw that much when you took on several of those thugs outside," Kokin replied. "Hakufu might already be in the middle of an attack and the ones who usually execute assassinations are the Big Four. You'd have a better chance of saving her than I do."

"Kokin…" Ranma frowned.

"How noble," Saji grinned. "Still, that's all based off the assumption that you can get past me without getting in a fight. Are you sure you wanna try?" The older boy's stance changed slightly, but it was ready for any kind of attack that could come his way.

"Against a guy like you? Easy," Ranma grinned, his knees bending slightly in preparation to move. "Don't blink or you just might miss it."

"Bring it on then," Saji smirked.

Ranma was standing still for only a moment, but he then charged like a shot. Saji's eyes widened as he barely had time to even contemplate moving, '_So fast!_' Lashing out of sheer battle instinct, he attempted to block Ranma's charge by grabbing him. Ranma observed that Saji didn't seem to be a slouch in the speed department himself, but Ranma had long since mastered aerial movements. Using the wall beside him as a surface to move off of, Ranma kicked off of it and then used Saji's arm as a surface to spring over the dirty blonde with his hand. Flipping over the stunned Nanyo student, Ranma landed on the ground with a grin. Glancing at Saji's back, he slapped him on the small of his back, making him stumble slightly and struggle to keep his balance on the steps lest he fall down them and onto Kokin.

"Hey, you blinked!" Ranma grinned. Getting up, he started bolting up the stairs before vanishing from sight. "See ya!"

Windmilling his arms, Saji managed to get his balance back. However, Ranma's footsteps could already be heard heading onto the third floor and vanished as the distance grew. The blonde womanizer sighed, glancing upstairs, "Well, how do you like that? He actually got past me," Shaking his head, he looked back down at Kokin who had taken on a fighting stance, likely a Chinese kempo of some kind. "Well now, I suppose you're going to distract me while your buddy goes to rescue Ms. Booby Bombs?"

"For as long as I can," Kokin frowned.

"Well, I suppose I can't have you mucking things up worse than they already are," Saji shrugged. "Best to put you down now so you can't interfere."

Kokin clenched his teeth and prepared to attack.

* * *

Ranma practically burst into the hallway of the third floor, quickly darting to the left as per Kokin's instructions. Running, he looked for any sign of his cousin, hoping that the Imperial Order which had apparently been sent out would not apply to her. Running at one of his highest speeds, he hoped that whoever Enjyutsu was, he didn't think executing Hakufu was necessary.

Turning a corner, Ranma saw that he was wrong.

Hakufu was there, dressed in a Nanyo girls uniform which was similar to the boys uniform save for the red bow on the front and the red skirt. However, she was on her knees and her front was ripped open to reveal a pink bra underneath. The reason she was on her knees was because another girl had her neck locked between her thighs and her right arm locked in her own arms. She wore blue gloves and had black boots with blue socks on as well. She had short blue hair and a beauty mark near her mouth, but the oddest thing about her was that she had one blue eye and one gray eye. Ranma's trained eyes could also see that the grappling move the bluenette was using was cutting off blood flow in Hakufu's neck and she was already losing consciousness. That kind of move could result in serious damage if it was held for too long, depriving blood flow and oxygen to the brain.

"WHY DON"T YOU JUST FINISH ALREADY?" the bluenette demanded, almost hysterically. "WHAT IS SONSAKU? WHAT IS THE HAO? DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH!"

Ranma saw red…

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY COUSIN YOU BITCH!" he bellowed, charging at the pair at a speed many wouldn't be able to catch

Ranma was usually a guy who could keep his temper in check most days. Granted, he tended to get pretty mad when you started questioning his manhood and belittle him for his curse, steal his food, or other such things. However, those kinds things usually were dealt with from case to case with a simple bonk to the skull or a painful sparring practice. Almost everyone in Nerima thought they had seen Ranma angry, but that was far from the truth. Ranma's rage barely saw the light of day. Trained as a martial artist, he made sure his emotions were kept firmly in check, the ones which could distract him anyway. His ego was another story altogether. However, his rage was usually kept well under control unless something or someone he truly felt strongly about was threatened. Once a long time ago that someone was Akane and his rage had resulted in the death and subsequent rebirth of Saffron.

Roaring like a beast, Ranma was upon the pair in an instant. The bluenette was in the middle of her battle ecstasy and probably wasn't paying the best attention to her surroundings. Her twisted pleasure quickly ended when Ranma's foot impacted into her side, lifting her clear off the ground and incidentally breaking her grip on her captive. She hadn't even registered the full pain of the kick which sent her sailing as she seemed to hover for a moment before Ranma unleashed another kick into her abdomen. This time, the attack used so much force it sent her hurtling through the air before crashing against the locker room door, caving it in before the hinges failed and it fell backwards, taking the girl with it.

Rage satisfied for the moment, Ranma looked down at his dazed cousin. Quickly kneeling down at her side, he gently sat her up as he tried to rouse her, "Hakufu! Hakufu! Wake up! It's me, Ranma!"

"Unnnnnn," the usually perky strawberry blonde groaned, her eyes dazed and her mind obviously clouded. "Ran-chan…wanna play…bored…hungry…"

"Hakufu…" Ranma sighed. Even dazed and confused, she never seemed to stray from her thoughts; Food and keeping amused.

A groan from the end of the hallway brought Ranma's mind back to the fight. Setting Hakufu against the wall, he stood up and stepped forward so to keep her behind his back at all times. At the end of the hallway, the bluenette stepped out of the locker room and the remains of its doorway in and out. She was gritting her teeth with her eyes narrowed and momentarily clutching her abdomen where Ranma had kicked her, but she seemed to be swallowing the pain so she could continue, "Who the hell are you?" she demanded hotly.

"Your worst nightmare now that you've tried to go through with that Imperial Order," Ranma answered, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

"My worst nightmare huh?" the girl frowned, standing up straight despite what pain she was probably in. "I should be saying that to you. Don't you know who you're dealing with?"

"Enlighten me," Ranma answered.

"Ryomou Shinmei. One of the Big Four of Nanyo Academy," the girl answered beginning to advance on Ranma. "Now that you've gotten in the way, I'll have to get rid of you before I can move on to Hakufu Sonsaku."

"Provided you can beat me," Ranma frowned. "And I know for a fact that will never happen."

"So you say," Ryomou frowned, tightening her gloves. "But in my experience, it always does!" With a battle cry, she charged at Ranma, intent on getting him out of the way and continuing her orders.

* * *

"GAH!" Kokin cried out as a punch from Saji sent him sailing into the metal railing of the staircase before he slumped to the floor. His face was bleeding in several places and his arms were bruised darkly from all the blocks he took. Underneath his uniform, his chest was similarly bruised, but much bigger since they all came from attacks which had slipped through his defences and struck him as if they were unopposed in the first place.

"Gotta admit, you're lasting longer than I thought," Saji admitted, standing at the foot of the stairs leading up to the next floor. "Still, stringing you along like this is probably not a good idea so I'll be putting you down for good now."

Kokin grunted and tried to stand, but he couldn't see straight. What he could see was Saji advancing, coming for what seemed like the finishing blow to either kill him or incapacitate him so to keep him from interfering with the assault on Hakufu.

Saji advanced, rubbing his fist in preparing for the final punch, however, as he was taking his third step, his legs suddenly gave out beneath him, "What the-!" he gasped as he dropped to his knees. He struggled with his legs, trying to get some kind of response from them, but found nothing. He could still feel them, but he just couldn't get them to move. Trying to figure out what had happened, he suddenly remembered being slapped on the small of his back by the pigtailed guy. Realizing that a pressure point or some similar technique had been used, he began to chuckle softly to himself, "Geez. Boy did I get fooled."

"H-huh?" Kokin blinked.

"Looks like we're both out of this fight," Saji sighed, pushing himself back against the stairwell with his arms. "Your pigtailed buddy must have hit me with a pressure point which makes my legs useless. Apparently he thought you'd hold out long enough against me to have it take effect. Damn he's good."

'_Ranma,_' Kokin thought to himself.

That was when a loud crash echoed from above and shards of glass could be seen falling from the windows above.

* * *

**Moments Before…**

Ryomou and Ranma were clashing heatedly. The female member of the Big Four was attempting to go with her grappling moves in order to choke and subdue the intruder, but she was finding it extremely difficult to find an opening for such a move. Ranma had slipped into Drunken Fist, one of the more flexible styles he knew, dipping and swerving around each of Ryomou's attacks, usually managing to hit her at an awkward angle. Not that Ranma was getting away unscathed in their exchanges. Ryomou was skilled at swerving and managed to use some of Ranma's attacks to get around him and slam her feet into his back or head or slide under him so to try to strike at his legs. Each attempt left him sore, but he quickly twisted away from her so to avoid being caught in one of her lethal grappling moves.

"Dammit! Just fall down already!" Ryomou cried angrily.

"No way!" Ranma growled, attempting another sideways punch. It would have been a good hit, but Ryomou managed to catch a glimpse of it coming and was already moving. Grabbing his arm, she turned it around behind him, moving with it before she leaped up and wrapped her legs around his neck. Hooking her ankles together, she hung back, letting gravity add a little more weight to her legs, her calf pressing against Ranma's throat while her thighs added pressure. Her grip on his arm remained strong, giving her even more leverage.

"Now I'll show you what it means to cross Ryomou Shinmei!" the bluenette snarled, putting even more pressure on Ranma's throat through her legs.

"NGH!" Ranma sputtered. Normally for a move like this all he'd have to do is fall backwards to either force Ryomou to let him go or to plant her into the floor. However, it didn't escape his notice that she had injected some of her ki into him when she managed to get her grapple to hold. He could feel it pulse around his body, making his muscles freeze. The girl knew her grappling inside and out, even using ki techniques to make sure her targets didn't try to use their faults against her.

'_Good, but not good enough,_' Ranma thought, pushing his significantly higher amounts of ki against the paralyzing pulse and nullifying it. Feeling the muscles in his legs relax again, he choked out his next sentence. "Pretty good…but you're…forgetting about…one thing!"

"Oh? And what's that?" Ryomou frowned.

"My ki…beats yours!" Using his free hand, Ranma pointed at the wall and windows in front of him with his free hand before unleashing one of his signature moves, "_Moko Takabisha!_" The concentration confidence ki blew out from his hand, smashing against the wall and shattering all the windows and creating a caved-in section. However, Ranma hadn't braced himself and instead allowed the recoil to launch him against the wall, with Ryomou between himself and the solid surface.

"AGH!" the bluenette gasped in pain, but rather than let go, she managed to start grasping Ranma's neck with her legs even tighter than before! Her face partially concealed by the wall, she managed to speak, "It'll take…more than that!"

"Fine!" Ranma grimaced, his vision starting to get a little fuzzy. Damn this girl was stubborn! "I call this next one, One Thousand Years of Pain!" Clenching his hand with two fingers sticking out, Ranma thrust his hand upwards and backwards and introduced his fingers to a one way street which Ryomou knew very well.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"

"What?" Kokin gasped, still a bloody mess with Saji still crippled in front of him. "That…didn't that sound like Ryomou?"

"Sure did. Even better, I recognize that kind of scream," Saji snickered. "Girls always get a little vocal when they use their back entrance for the first time. Only this time it probably wasn't as gentle as most partners would try to be."

"Huh?" Kokin blinked.

"You'll find out once you go all the way," Saji answered cryptically.

* * *

Ryomou was on the floor grasping her ass as she tried to will the pain away. Really, no matter how tough one was, if the pain had come from a place they had never had pain before then they were going to react to it. How tough they were just determined how quickly they would be able to recover from it. Some feet away from the grimacing bluenette was Ranma, taking deep breaths so to get his breath back while he furiously rubbed his two fingers in his shirt, wanting to get them cleaned off.

"Can't believe I did that," he grunted. "Need a bath tonight."

"GRRRRR!" Ryomou snarled, getting to her knees and glaring at Ranma with supreme hatred. "You bastard! I'll kill you for that!"

"You won't be the first one who promised that," Ranma frowned back. "Although you're probably one of the few who has a good reason."

"RRRAAAAAAHHHH!" the enraged bluenette bellowed as she charged at Ranma once again. Instead of grappling, she began using punches and blows meant to really hurt. Ranma had to act fast and think quickly to dodge them, but Ryomou was apparently a grappling fighter first and a power fighter second so the blows weren't able to connect as easily as her usual attacks would. Still, the glancing blows stung so Ryomou definitely had power behind her punches.

Twisting around one such blow, Ranma's eyes landed on where he had placed Hakufu. Her eyes were blinking slowly and it seemed that she was beginning to get some semblance of consciousness back. Either that or the restricted blood flow had caused her to fall asleep and she was on the verge of sleepwalking or something. Either way, she was recovering from what Ryomou had done to her and that meant that it was probably high time to get her out.

"I've had enough of this," Ranma frowned. Twisting around another of Ryomou's punches, he gripped her fists and raised it up, leaving her torso unprotected. Rearing back his fist at a speed only an Amazon could probably match, he unleashed his next technique, "_Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken!_" To the untrained eye, Ranma's fist plowed into Ryomou's abdomen, but to those who were trained, it was fifty to one hundred high speed punches hitting her within seconds. Normally a tough girl like Ryomou would be capable of taking that many hits, but having every hit trained on one spot with no chance at retaliation or defence, it quickly took its toll on her.

"GAH!" Ryomou gasped, the wind knocked straight out of her as saliva and possibly a bit of blood splattered to the floor. Her teeth clenched as she tried to remain conscious despite the first buried in her gut. However, her battle of wills failed as she passed out and slumped over Ranma's fist. While Ranma was within his rights to leave her hurting more since Ryomou did hurt his cousin, he wasn't the vindictive type lest one of his rivals or enemies do something directly to him or tried to woo Akane away while he felt strongly for her. Placing the bluenette gently on the floor, he turned to check on Hakufu. Walking to her side, he held her face to see if she was conscious nor not.

"Nnnn…dinnertime…hungry…" the strawberry blonde mumbled.

"Definitely sleeping," Ranma sighed. "Oh well, no helping it," Slipping his arms under Hakufu's knees and her lower back, he picked her up in a bridal carry. Making sure she was secure, he carried her towards the stairs, listening to her sleep-driven mumbles about food and dinner the while way. Traversing the stairs with ease, he found Kokin, slightly bloody from his fight with Saji and the other student himself leaning against the stairwell, his legs completely useless.

"Hakufu!" Kokin gasped at the sight of his cousin. Standing up with a serious amount of effort, he stumbled over for a closer look. Of course, he was blushing from the sight of seeing her bra out in the open like it was. "Is she okay?"

"Some girl named Ryomou was putting a chokehold move on her and she pretty much passed out," Ranma answered. "I interrupted her and we fought. I kicked her ass."

"Wow, you beat Mou-chan then?" Saji chuckled. "She's not going to like that."

"Well, you should probably get her some help since I left her unconscious in the hallway," Ranma answered, walking with Hakufu to the descending stairs. "Your legs should be getting better soon enough. Once they do go check on your friend. Nothing serious should be wrong with her but I did use some heavy attacks on her."

"Will do," Saji nodded with a mock salute.

Taking Hakufu, Ranma descended the stairs with Kokin stumbling along behind them. That left the dirty blonde alone as his mind ran over the implications of what had happened that day. Granted, Ryomou wasn't the strongest of all the fighters, but she was pretty high in skill and only a few could really beat her. The pigtailed guy had just added his name to that relatively short list and would probably earn a place of honour on the bluenette's shit list too. Saji only knew that the mysterious new boy's name was Ranma and that he was definitely skilled. This may have some serious implications on the plans he had going on.

"Oh well," he sighed. "I'll deal with it all in time."

Now if only he could walk.

* * *

The walk back to Kokin's house was slow since the boy had been given a pretty bad beating at the hands of Saji. Still, he was thankfully able to keep conscious and mentally together rather than being a stumbling, punch-drunk mess. He led them on what he claimed was a shortcut between his house and the school. Of course, the only obstacle was a metal mesh fence, but Ranma was easily capable of leaping over it while Kokin had to struggle over and drop on his butt with a loud thud. Still, they managed to get to the Shu house as the sun was vanishing over the horizon.

"Been a while since I was here," Ranma commented as he appreciated the decoration around the house.

"It has been, hasn't it?" asked Kokin. "We were all little kids when we met here."

"Yeah," Ranma nodded. "Say, is that message Hakufu carved into one of the support pillars still here?"

"Sadly, yes," Kokin sighed. When they were little, he and Hakufu got into an argument about how he was the better boy to protect the empress while they were playing. Hakufu got mad, thinking that he was trying to tell her what to do when she was supposed to be the empress. In revenge, she carved the words 'stupid Kokin' into one of the support pillars on the porch surrounding the house. His aunt, Goei had punished her, but his father never saw fit to replace it since the damage was so small. He had to look at it every day it felt like.

Reaching the front door, the three teens entered as Kokin announced, "We're home!"

"Welcome back!" a mature female voice answered from within. The padding of footsteps announced their arrival before a woman in a black kimono and a red obi stepped into the entry hall. She had short brown/red hair and glasses. She was also a very attractive woman who had no doubt many men both her own age and younger would try to put the moves on if they felt like they had any sort of chance with her. She took in the sight of Kokin being bloody and Hakufu unconscious in Ranma's arms before looking to Ranma himself.

"Oh my," she blinked. "And just who is this studly young man you've brought home with you?"

"Eh, heh, heh, heh," Ranma chuckled weakly, being reminded strongly of his mother. "It's…been a while Aunt Goei."

"Hmm?" the mature woman blinked. She seemed to ponder for a moment before gasping, her eyes sparkling with joy. "Oh Ranma! Is that really you?" she dashed up to the pigtailed martial artists, incidentally seemingly forgetting that her daughter was in his arms in favour of examining her other nephew. "Oh it's been so long! Look at you! You've become so handsome and manly! Oh I bet the girls are just clamouring over each other for your attention!"

"Uhhh…" Ranma shuddered. It wasn't so much that girls fought for his attention, it was more like they fought each other with the expectation that he'd belong to the last one standing.

"Ah...Aunt Goei?" Kokin asked from where he was standing. "My wounds aren't getting any better and Hakufu probably needs to get some rest in her room, so…"

"Oh, of course," Goei nodded, stepping back. "Ranma, why don't you follow me and I'll show you where Hakufu's room is. Kokin, you know where the first aid kit is. Once Ranma has Hakufu safely in bed I'll come and help you out."

"Right, Aunt Goei. Thanks," Kokin nodded before he began limping into the house.

"Follow me Ranma," Goei motioned before walking in a different direction than her nephew. The pigtailed martial artist nodded and followed his aunt.

The house seemed to have remained unchanged since he and his father had passed through it. All of the traditional artwork seemed to be the same and the place was as clean and sophisticated as ever. The house was probably one of the few places Ranma had any good memories of his childhood aside from all the painful training his father put him through. The only other fun memories he had were about his time with Ukyo as kids, but she was poisoning those as she tried to use them as emotional blackmail so he would marry her. He just hoped that the fun memories he had of Hakufu and Kokin wouldn't go the same way.

"Here we are," Goei smiled, approaching a door which looked out at the backyard. Taking hold of the sliding door, she opened it to reveal a guest room with a futon styled after a girl's taste. "Just place her on the futon please."

"Sure thing," Ranma nodded. Walking into the room, he gently placed the strawberry blonde on the soft futon before slowly letting go so not to wake her up. Making sure she was comfortable, Ranma stepped back and out of the room, meeting his Aunt Goei again.

"That girl," the mature woman sighed. "Making us all worry about her and then getting her clothes ruined all over again. She'd better have a good explanation about this. I told her that fighting just for the fun of it would be punished." Ranma blinked at his aunt and saw she was dead serious. His mother on the other hand seemed to be perfectly fine with all of the fights which seemed to find their way to him. To her, they seemed to be just ways to show off how manly he was…or maybe she just didn't know how often he was attacked by the fiancées and rivals. It was hard to tell with her.

"Ah well, I'll do that later," Goei shrugged, closing the door to Hakufu's room. "Let's go to the living room and go see if Kokin needs help with his bandages. Then we can talk and get caught up!"

"Right…" Ranma sweatdropped. It seemed that his aunt was just as excitable as his mother. Shrugging it off, he followed the older woman through the house before entering the living room again where Kokin was sitting down with a first aid kit and applying some disinfectant to his wounds.

"Here, let me help you with that," Goei spoke softly as she approached her nephew. Taking the disinfectant, she began applying it to some of Kokin's head wounds, making the boy wince from some of the stinging sensations. Ranma just took a seat nearby and watched them, not wanting to stick his foot in his mouth or say something he shouldn't.

"So Ranma, just why did you come all this way?" asked Goei curiously. "Last I heard from No-chan you were settling down in Nerima somewhere."

"Ah, Hakufu told me about how her first day of school went yesterday and some friends of mine heard the rumours about the war that Nanyo and the other schools were up to here," Ranma answered. "I was worried and decided to come here to see if she was okay. Turns out my timing couldn't have been better."

"I'll say," Kokin winced. "He showed up just when a bunch of fighters were about to try and take me down before he managed to get past Saji and then take on Ryomou to make sure Hakufu was okay. I didn't see the fight but I did hear her scream," he looked to his relative with curiosity. "Just what did you do to her?"

"I'd…rather not say," Ranma answered quietly. No doubt if word got out about what he did to Ryomou to make her scream like that, she'd be pissed at him for the rest of eternity.

"Oh, maybe you had your wicked way with her and she was screaming in unwanted ecstasy?" Goei asked with a teasing smile.

"NO WAY!" Ranma shouted loudly, his face turning red in an instant. "We fought! That's it! That was the only thing we did!"

Goei just seemed to giggle at the loud reply while Kokin sighed in long-suffering understanding. Muttering to himself about perverted aunts under his breath, Ranma crossed his arms and decided to continue his story, "Anyway, I got here yesterday but the map I had didn't tell me which of the schools were which. I dropped by Youshu, Seito, and Kyosho before I finally got directions to Nanyo where I found Kokin about to get mobbed by those other guys."

"Wait, you were at Youshu, Seito and Kyosho? For real?" asked Kokin. "Did anything happen? I mean, they don't take the appearance of unfamiliar fighters very well unless their joining their side. None of the schools do really."

"Well, Hanno at Youshu tried to pick a fight with me, but after I threatened to kick his ass Taishiji showed up," Ranma shrugged.

"Wait? Taishiji? The top fighter of Youshu? One of the top five in Kanto?" Kokin cried. "What did you do?"

"Well, he apologized for my treatment of an enemy since I'm not with any of the schools and then we fought," Ranma grinned. "I've gotta admit, it was a pretty fun fight. Still, I managed to win in the end. No hard feelings were made about it so that made it better."

Kokin was gaping, his eyes wide with shock, "You…you…you actually fought Taishiji…and won?"

"Yeah, but it was just a friendly fight," Ranma shrugged. "That was nothing compared to fighting Kanu over at Seito," a grin broke out on his face. "Now that was an awesome fight. She's probably one of the toughest people I've fought in a long time. It ended in a draw since we both hit each other so hard we had to stop. Well, it was agreed to end on the next blow and we hit each other at the same time but the strikes hit so hard we would have had to stop anyway."

"Ka…Ka…Kanu?" Kokin gaped, his pupils growing small in shock.

"Oh, you sound like you had fun with this Kanu girl," Goei smiled slyly. "Are you going to try and see more of her?"

"Well…I definitely wouldn't mind seeing her again," Ranma chuckled weakly. "She's really powerful and definitely very controlled in her actions and reactions. I guess she's…really good-looking too. Heh heh heh."

"Oh, a young man knows what he wants in a woman," Goei giggled. "Ranma, in place of your mother I'll give you my full support! Go get that Kanu girl!"

"But…but…it's KANU UNCHOU!" Kokin cried. "She's another one of the top fighters in the region! How'd you manage to fight her and Taishiji both in the same day and still be alive? I thought you only said that part to scare Saji!"

"No, I was serious," Ranma nodded. "Besides, like I said, Taishiji and I weren't going all out and Kanu figured out I wasn't a threat to Seito while we were fighting. The Sousou guy at Kyosho was the one who gave me the directions to Nanyo."

"SOUSOU?" Kokin gaped. "Please don't tell me you picked a fight with him!"

"Nah, why would I?" Ranma shrugged. He then seemed to recall what he felt coming off Sousou, "Would be a pretty cool fight though. He's crazy strong."

"Ah, the desires of men among men can't be denied or ignored," Goei sighed dramatically. "So Ranma, did you meet any other of the local women who tickled your fancy?"

"Ummm…well, I did meet one girl but I don't know if hanging out with her would be a good idea until I figure out what she wants," Ranma shrugged.

"Oh?" Goei grinned, ignoring Kokin for the moment as she leaned in closer to Ranma. "A dangerous girl is she? Just tell us who is she?"

"Said her name was Ryofu Hosen from Rakuyo," Ranma replied.

"WHAT?" Kokin cried out, flinching as he aggravated the wounds on his head. "Ranma, did you meet every top fighter from the district or pick fights from all of them or something? Just how many people did you meet?"

"That was about it," Ranma shrugged, seemingly uncaring of how dangerous all of the people he had met could be if they were provoked. It was like Ranma acted like he was attacked by people who could kill him all the time to the understandably shocked young man.

"Well, it seems Ranma has plenty of choice when it comes to the local girls," Goei giggled. "Make sure to choose wisely!"

"Uh…sure," the pigtailed martial artist blinked.

* * *

**Rakuyo**

Totaku was tending to the flowers in the school greenhouse as per his usual habits. The care and attention he put into them hid his normally cruel nature and if it weren't for the bandages which covered his skin, one wouldn't have been able to guess just how malicious he could be when he felt like it. Behind him, Ryofu was sitting in seiza, having given her report about Ranma Saotome to her leader and waiting to see if he had any further orders for him

"So he spotted you did he?" Totaku asked, picking an orchid. "My, that's not like you at all Ryofu."

"His skill certainly was not made up," Ryofu frowned, trying her best to ignore the slight to her skills. "The rumours about that and who he fought are definitely true."

"It is indeed," Totaku nodded, sniffing the flower. "He'd certainly make an asset towards our own forces, would he not?"

"Yes sir," Ryofu nodded. "Do wish for me to try to recruit him now? He already knows me and that might make it easier."

"It could," Totaku nodded, plucking the petals of the flower. "It can wait though. I'm expecting a visitor soon. Tomorrow at the latest. He may have some more information on this fellow and the Sho Hao which I've heard has taken up residence in Nanyo."

"Yes sir," Ryofu nodded.

* * *

**Shu House**

Inside her room, Hakufu groaned as she returned to the waking world. The last thing she remembered was that pink eye girl choking her between her thighs before she passed out. She wasn't too sure what happened next, but she was sure that she had some kind of dream about her cousin Ranma coming to save her. Of course, she knew that probably didn't happen since she hadn't seen Ranma in years and had only just talked to him yesterday. There was no chance he could have shown up a whole day later. Still, despite how nice the dream was, it still didn't take away from the fact that she had been defeated in battle.

"It…really is a shameful feeling," she pouted to herself, rubbing her neck where the pink eye girl had been strangling her.

Sitting up in her bed, Hakufu managed to drag herself out before reaching for her door. Opening it, she found the sun had gone down to reveal the night sky. The sight of it just made her begin to pout. Now she had probably missed dinner too. Could her day have gotten any worse?

"AUNT GOEI PUT YOUR CLOTHES BACK ON!"

Hakufu blinked in confusion. That didn't sound like Kokin at all. Curious, she began to head to the main living area to see just what was going on. Finding the entrance to the room, she slid it open to find her mother sitting down, happily drunk with a large sake bottle sitting on the table. Of course, she was attempting to strip just like she did when they had all arrived at the Shu house yesterday. Kokin was passed out on the floor, drunk. However, what was interfering with Goei's attempts of relieving herself of her clothes was a boy dressed in Chinese clothes with his black hair done up in a pigtail.

"Oh come on Ranma!" Goei pouted. "We're all family here! It's nothing you probably haven't seen before!"

"That doesn't mean I want to see my relatives like that!" the pigtailed boy practically pleaded, struggling to keep Goei's obi wrapped around her.

Hakufu blinked at the scene, once again confused about what was going on. However, that had quickly taken a back seat to the revelation of the new boy's name who was attempting to keep her mother's modesty intact. Could it really be…, "Ran-chan?"

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, turning to see who was using his nickname. Standing in the doorway to the room was none other than his bubbly blonde cousin who was looking at the whole situation with confusion in her eyes. Ranma immediately realized just what his current position looked like, holding his Aunt Goei's clothes while they were all wrinkled and messed up, no doubt looking like he was trying to strip her or something. Immediately releasing his aunt, he waved his hands in front of himself, trying to shield what was no doubt an incoming attack. "This isn't what it looks like!"

The words didn't seem to reach Hakufu's mind as her eyes widened in sheer surprise, "Ran-chan!" she squealed in joy. Lunging forward, she collided with her cousin in a super-glomp, knocking him to the floor as she hugged him as tightly as she could. "Oh wow Ran-chan! I didn't know you were coming! This is so cool!" She continued to hug him happily while kicking her feet in the air like a little kid would.

"Um…" Ranma blinked. He had really been expecting to be hit for the perverted-looking position with his own aunt, but Hakufu didn't seem to be concerned about that. Well, Ranma wasn't going to bring it to her attention so he decided to move on with the conversation. "Yeah, it's good to see you too Hakufu. I just wish it wasn't when I had to see you getting choked by the blue-haired girl."

"-sigh- yeah, I got beaten badly," Hakufu sighed, shifting to a depressed state once again. "Such a shameful feeling."

"Hey, you managed to get beaten today," Ranma sighed, rubbing the top of Hakufu's head with his hand. "But you managed to survive so that means you can get stronger now. Besides, I came to make sure you were okay and to see if I couldn't put some martial arts skills into that head of yours."

"Really?" Hakufu gasped, looking up at Ranma with sparkles in her eyes. "You'll really help me get stronger? Oh Ran-chan you're the best!"

"Well, there wasn't any doubt about that," Ranma grinned smugly.

Watching her child and second nephew was Goei, smiling at the sweet scene. Distracted from relieving herself from her clothes she could only watch as her daughter was pulled out of her depression from one of the two boys who probably knew her best. It seemed Ranma's coming was going to be most fortuitous.

* * *

**Hospital**

Saji stretched as he sat in the waiting room of the local hospital which almost all of the fighters used when they were injured. It was one of the places that they considered to be neutral so no fighting went on while they were there. Of course, it didn't stop some of the people from placing guards outside the rooms if they felt that the person being treated was someone of high ranking and thus an easy target. Saji had brought in Ryomou after his legs returned to their proper function. Thankfully she was right where the pigtailed guy had said she'd be, unconscious in the middle of the hallway. Ranma definitely worked her over, but it didn't seem too serious. Still, Saji had brought her for medical treatment just in case.

"Maybe there are some cute nurses nearby," he pondered, but the thought was shot down when he spotted his blue-haired friend approaching from the inner hallways of the medical centre. She looked well enough and wasn't sporting any bandages beyond the eye patch she always wore. Saji immediately stood up and began waving at her. "Well hey there Mou-chan, how are you feeling?"

"Lousy," the girl replied with a frown.

"Yeah, the doc told me you had some deep bruising, some of it internal," Saji nodded. "He also said that you had some rectal trauma. He asked me if you had been raped or something."

"What?" Ryomou cried, her face turning red. Stepping up to her friend, she grabbed him by the lapels of his shirt. "Saji, if you want to stay alive then you had better not say that to anyone else!"

"Relax, I won't say a word," Saji smiled, soothing Ryomou's temper as he always could and prying her hands off of him. "Of course, the way you screamed sure let everyone who was nearby know that something sure happened to you. Just what did that guy do to you?" Saji could guess part of what happened, but he liked to tease the normally serious girl when he could and this was too much of an opportunity to pass up.

"None of your business," Ryomou frowned, her face a lovely shade of red. "Just who the hell was he?"

"Not too sure, but he seems connected to the Sho Hao in some way. I think his name is Ranma," Saji shrugged. "Managed to catch me by surprise and get me with a pressure point that made my legs useless for about an hour or so."

"When he attacked me, he said that she was his cousin," the eye patch girl commented. "I hate to admit it, but he's a hell of a good fighter. It wouldn't surprise me too much if it turned out that he was the real Sho Hao and that bubblehead was just a distraction for him to see how our fighters stacked up."

"Hmm, not a bad theory," Saji nodded, tapping his chin in thought. "It might explain why the new girl is so strong even though she doesn't have much skill at all. So just what do we do about him then?"

"We find out just who he is and why he's here," Ryomou shrugged. "A fighter like him is definitely going to make an impact and if we're lucky, he'll be on our side."

"Oh? Ready to accept him so easily?" Saji asked with a grin. "Are you hoping he's the Sho Hao so you can serve him? What kind of 'service' did you have in mind Mou-chan? Huh? Huh?"

"Shut. Up," the grappling specialist growled before she walked past her friend and headed for the exit. While she was exiting, her lone uncovered eye narrowed in agitation and frustration, '_Ranma or whatever your name is…I will pay you back for that humiliation._'

* * *

**Shu House**

"ACHOO!" Ranma sneezed violently, almost coating the dinner table with his sneeze. Thankfully he managed to avoid that. His Aunt Goei had really pulled out all of the stops to make a dinner to celebrate Ranma's arrival despite being for all appearances a little tipsy from her sudden binge drinking. Still, it looked and tasted great so none of the collected teenagers were going to turn it down, least of all Ranma himself. Probably the only one who wasn't in high spirits was Kokin who was suffering from a slight hangover thanks to the booze his aunt practically forced onto him.

"Are you catching a cold Ran-chan?" Hakufu asked with concern.

"Nah. Someone must be talking about me," Ranma replied, sniffling. "It's probably Ryomou stating how she'll try to kill me the next time she sees me or something."

"And that doesn't concern you?" Kokin asked with a sweatdrop.

"Not really," Ranma shrugged. "It's nothing I haven't dealt with before."

"Oh my, you've must have led quite the life," Goei commented as if she were talking about the weather. "Care to tell us about some of your adventures since we last saw you?"

"Ummm," Ranma blinked. He wasn't too sure if that was a good idea. People tended to freak out when he told them how his training trip went and how life in Nerima was for him. What they freaked out about tended to vary though.

"Please Ran-chan?" Hakufu begged cutely, leaning across the table slightly

"Uhhh….okay," the pigtailed martial artist sighed, not having the heart to turn down his cousin. "It's not going to be a pretty story though."

"How bad could it be?" asked Kokin, slightly curious.

* * *

**Elsehwere…**

"So…we haven't heard anything about him?"

The girls of Seito Private School were at their temple home, doing their usual duties of keeping Ryuubi safe at all times. It was a nice private place and in was in fact very peaceful and not many who were outside of the grand battle of the seven schools would have guessed some of the most powerful fighters of Seito if not out of all the fighters used the place as their home and base when not at their school.

At the moment, the only ones there were Kanu Unchou, the short-haired Chouhi whom Ranma had soundly defeated the previous day, Ryuubi Gentoku, the glasses-sporting girl who had politely asked Ranma what he was doing at their school, and finally the last of Ryuubi's constant bodyguards, Chou'un Shiryuu.

Chou'un was definitely what one would call a beauty. She had a shapely figure which her variant of the Seito uniform which consisted of a brown vest, black skirt, and white top did not cover the fact that she had curves in all the right places and revealed that she was indeed gifted in the bust area. Her skin seemed soft and looked very smooth, giving her an appearance which would be akin to a porcelain doll. She had long flowing silver hair which cascaded down her back while some of it framed her face. An odd quirk about her though was the fact that she kept her eyes closed all the time. She was not blind, but she preferred to keep her eyes closed and use her other senses simply because her eyes were not what one would call normal which unnerved some people. At her side was a very real katana, indicating just what kind of combat method she preferred to use.

At this moment in time, the girls were enjoying dinner as they conversed over the subject concerning the newest face to the Kanto region, namely one Ranma Saotome. In the day since Kanu and Ranma battled one another, the fighters had been talking, wondering just who the stranger was and what he wanted. Ryuubi had asked just who the boy was who had fought her bodyguard to a draw. Since Ryuubi was not quite being the type to be harsh about anything, preferring reading books to battle, Kanu, Chouhi, and Chou'un had taken up the task of finding out just who the mysterious pigtailed boy was for the gentle girl instead.

"Well, he was seen leaving Kyosho Academy this morning," Kanu replied, sipping tea as she answered her leader's inquiry. "One would assume he had been on the search for Nanyo and ended up there."

"Then why'd he stay the night?" asked Chouhi suspiciously.

"He didn't," Kanu replied. "From what I was told, he slept on the beach out behind the school before cutting through Kyosho itself to continue on his way."

For her own part, Kanu was quite interested in seeing Ranma again. While having him as a part of Seito would be good for everyone in their war efforts, Kanu couldn't help but think about how pleasant it would be for her personally. While she could always appreciate a fine-looking man, Kanu had long since accepted that she was more interested in women, namely Ryuubi, but Ranma had a sort of roguish charm about him that had captured her interest despite all odds. He didn't fear her nor did he seem to hold any kind of negative emotion towards her like how almost everyone she knew did. In fact, it seemed just the opposite. He was open and friendly towards her with a kind of warm feeling that seemed to radiate from him, especially when it became clear that he was having fun with their fight. The naginata-user couldn't help but feel at least a little flustered by that warm sensation he exuded. The attraction had been instant and Kanu found that she was enjoying the sensation. It was what made her decide to pursue Ranma while she could, for both her school and for herself.

"Why are you all so interested in this guy anyway?" asked Chouhi with a huff. "He's not part of our school and he's not with our enemies so why bother?"

"It's because he's not with any of the schools that he is getting such attention, Chouhi," Chou'un answered. "A fighter of his calibre will be desired by many of the schools as one of their own. To be able to fight Kanu to a standstill speaks volumes of his ability. The balance of power would finally dip away from Rakuyo if we had him."

Chouhi made it no secret that she disliked Ranma since he left Seito. She considered him a jerk of high calibre and likewise a threat to Seito itself that needed to be taken care of. She didn't once consider just how much potential power he could bring to Seito if he was persuaded to join. She was still too busy being in a funk over how she was beaten by him in less time than his bout with Kanu took. She hadn't even been able to scratch him!

Chou'un on the other hand easily recognized the potential Ranma represented, being one of the people who had watched his bout with Kanu. The young man could read Kanu's moves to an extent and managed some impressive defence or counters to them. Even if he were caught by surprise such as when Kanu allowed her weapon to be kicked from her hands so she could attack properly, he could still react quickly enough to mount a counter. The silver-haired swordswoman had not been understating things when she said he had the potential to tip the balance away from Rakuyo. He was powerful and anyone who had watched him fight would say so as well. Of course, it wasn't solely for her school that Chou'un wanted to recruit him. Seeing his grace and fluid movements along with his powerful strikes and counters was certainly a delicious sight. Being able to see the handsome young man who could do those moves everyday certainly made Chou'un eager to see Ranma in a Seito uniform one day. Of course, she was already planning ways to 'persuade' him.

"I thought he was nice," Ryuubi frowned slightly at her bodyguard and friend's angry statement about the pigtailed boy she had seen looking at her school in confusion. He didn't seem to hold any kind of ill intent towards her at all when she met him.

"Well, you never know who might be an enemy is disguise," Chouhi grumbled, biting into one of her many snacks which she had brought to the dinner table to soothe her temper.

"You're just bitter because he managed to beat you in a fight with what seemed to be little effort," Kanu commented.

"He just got me by surprise!" Chouhi snapped defensively.

"Not from what I saw," Chou'un added.

"Like you saw anything since you have your eyes closed all the time!" Chouhi snapped.

"I saw enough," the silver-haired swordswoman replied, ignoring the barb. "In any case I think that it is safe to say that recruiting him should be a priority. With his skill we should be able to be capable of protecting Ryuubi at all times and be able to take a more offensive role in things to come. I doubt Totaku will be satisfied with just Youshu and Yoshuu under his command for very long. It's very possible that the other schools already know of him as well and will be making moves to get him on their side."

"Then…what should we do to make him choose us?" asked Ryuubi.

"Well, he is a man and despite how some of the boys in school are afraid of us, we are a group of attractive young women," Chou'un smiled slightly. "I think we can possibly do something to convince him. I can see to the issue personally if that would make you feel better Ryuubi."

Kanu's eyes narrowed slightly at her silver-haired compatriot. Anyone could tell from that tone of voice and the look on her face that she was noticeably interested in the mysterious pigtailed fighter as well. A flare of jealousy appeared in the naginata user's chest as she thought of Chou'un getting close with Ranma while she was standing guard over Ryuubi, "You don't have to trouble yourself Chou'un. Ranma already is familiar with me. I would have a better chance of persuading him."

Hearing the slight increase of emotion in Kanu's voice, Chou'un realised that perhaps she had some competition after all, "Oh, it's no trouble Kanu. I am not afraid of backing down from a challenge. Besides, I might just end up enjoying this one."

"But shouldn't we be preparing for the Big Fighters Tournament?" asked Kanu in response. "We still haven't selected anyone to compete and we should all be preparing ourselves even though we may not be the ones to compete."

"Then it is all the more imperative we get Ranma to join us," Chou'un argued. "With him we can have three people guarding Ryuubi and at least one powerful fighter representing Seito in the tournament."

"As much as I don't want to say it, that's a good point," Chouhi huffed. "If you want this guy to join up so bad then we can get him to fight in the tournament while the rest of us make sure no one tries anything funny with Ryuubi," mentioning her leader, she looked over to the spectacles-sporting girl who seemed to be entranced by how Chou'un and Kanu were attempting to one up one another in their arguments. "What do you think?"

"Uh?" Ryuubi blinked. Seeing Kanu and Chou'un argue was beginning to remind her of some romance novels she had read once. Chouhi's question had snapped her out of her introspection. "Um…well, I guess it would be good for us if Ranma did join Seito. Now we just have to find him so we can try to persuade him. Since Kanu and Chou'un have ideas on how to do that, they can be the ones to talk to him when they find him."

"Very well," Chou'un nodded.

"We'll do it right away," Kanu nodded.

Both girls then glanced at each other. Well, Chou'un looked in Kanu's direction even though she had her eyes closed. No words shared between the two, especially since Ryuubi would get distressed if the pair began fighting, but the message was easily enough passed between the two.

'_Game on._'

'_May the best woman win._'

* * *

**Shu House**

"…and then I was unconscious for a while and when I woke up everyone was mad at me for some reason, and that's about it I think," Ranma finished.

Ranma had spent about an hour explaining his life to his relatives from when they last saw him to his year in Nerima and all the hijinks which went on in there. The rivals, the fiancées, and even his curse which he had to demonstrate twice since Kokin had fainted when he saw it happen. Hakufu had thought it was pretty cool while Goei didn't seem to care either way. To them, Ranma was still family no matter what. However, hearing about all of the people who were after his heart, head, or a random choice of either option caused all three of them to gape widely. When he explained all of the weird stuff that went on, Ranma was pretty sure birds could have nested in their mouths.

"Are you…are you serious?" Kokin blinked incredulously. "I mean, people actually treat you that way back in Nerima?"

"Yes," Ranma nodded grimly.

"Mom…would Aunt Nodoka really make Ran-chan commit seppuku like that?" Hakufu asked her mother worriedly.

"Only if Ranma had turned into some kind of perverted thief like that shrivelled old man his father calls a master," Goei frowned. "I think No-chan would only make that contract in the first place to make sure Genma behaved himself on the trip while she couldn't be there curb his stupidity. It didn't seem to work though."

"And engaging you to all those girls just so he could get a little bit of money or food?" Kokin asked with his mouth still agape. "That's just worse than stupid, that's plain dishonourable! Did he really think that they wouldn't be able to find you or something?"

"Pop's motto is 'out of sight, out of mind'. He probably believes that if he stops thinking about it, maybe it'll never come up and he won't have to deal with it," Ranma sighed. "When it eventually comes back, he just lays the blame on me, saying how I shouldn't collect fiancées like that. Everyone else seems happy to blame me for the girls too."

"But they're the ones who just won't give up!" Hakufu cried. "You don't string anyone along!"

"That doesn't matter to them," Goei sighed. "They're incredibly selfish people, being driven by either the laws of their homes, delusions, or because their parents prefer to shove off their problems onto the next generation. They all have dreams and want to make Ranma part of them, even though Ranma himself doesn't want to, they just ignore that and continue dreaming about the life they think they'll live once he 'realizes' how much he loves them and marries them."

"Like that's going to happen," Ranma muttered, rolling his eyes.

"And despite everything Uncle Genma has done, breaking his word Kami knows how many times, this Tendo guy seems happy to just blame you instead of seeing how the pact was broken so many times?" asked Kokin. "No offense to you Ranma, but if someone broke a promise made to me like that, I'd have thrown them out onto the street!"

"I don't blame you," Ranma nodded. "But Mr. Tendo seems to think Pop can do no wrong although given the chance he'd break the pledge again and again for just about anything that's food or is worth money. When a girl comes saying I'm engaged to them through Pop, Mr. Tendo blames me. Akane throws a fit, Mr. Tendo blames me and both of them try to make me marry her immediately. Mr. Tendo really wants to join the schools and seems willing to do just about anything to make it happen."

"Like blackmailing you with the cure to your curse just to make you marry that mean girl," Hakufu huffed.

"It sounds to me that Soun is banking on you to take the schools into the next generation and make them famous," Goei spoke, piling rice onto her plate. "However, since he stopped training Akane after the death of his wife, it seems he's more offering her as a bribe along with the dojo to make Genma accept the pledge. Knowing that lazy fool, a place where he can lounge about all day, not lift a finger to help, and be able to keep away from Nodoka's standards especially since your trip to Jusenkyo is probably the most tempting price for you he's gotten yet. If they both made the pledge in the first place, it's pretty clear to me neither of them really took it seriously."

"Then there's that Ukyo girl who seems to feel she has the most right to you since her dowry was taken," Kokin added. "When you got hit by that moxibustion point she seemed ready to fit you into the life she had all planned out for both you and her."

"Yeah," Ranma muttered. He remembered that time. Ukyo didn't seem to have any sympathy at all for the fact that all of his strength was gone. Instead, she seemed happier at the fact that he couldn't take over the Tendo Dojo and would be easier to claim for her own plans of marriage than the ones with Akane. That was a major turning point in seeing her in any romantic light even though she did travel with him to try and get it fixed. She didn't do much to help besides make food so Ranma suspected she was simply trying to score points with him.

"Well what about that Shampoo girl?" asked Hakufu. "She doesn't even consider your feelings! She just grabs you and tries to feed you all sorts of poisons and stuff or try to bribe you with things that can stop your curse! I don't care if she's an Amazon or not! You can't treat people like that, especially my cousin!"

"She comes from a society where women are the ones in charge and men are second-class," Goei commented. "Men who are strong seem to have more respect than the average man who is born there, but not as much as a woman. Apparently this girl considers Ranma her property and her laws give her permission to take him if she can while getting rid of anyone who is in her way. I think the only reasons she hasn't gone postal on everyone is because she's never killed before and it would get Ranma mad at her and since that incident with that Saffron person, she's being very wary of that."

"I think Cologne's clued in on that too," Ranma nodded. "I've taken down both the Musk Prince and the Pheonix king, enemies to the Amazons. Getting me into the tribe has probably become a much bigger task than before, but they don't want to cheese me off since they know what I'm capable of too."

"Breaking a mountain? Yeah, I'd be stepping on eggshells around you too," Kokin nodded.

"My cousin's so cool," Hakufu grinned.

"The worst in my opinion is that Akane girl though," the blue-haired boy cringed. "I mean, you go through all this crap just to help her out and half the time she doesn't even appreciate it. I mean, you two seem to fight all the time and her temper is completely out of control. Martial arts are supposed to be about self control and growth but all she seems to use it for is making a spectacle of herself when she beat up all those guys who tried to fight her. I guess you sort of invite trouble by calling her names but I hardly think a mallet to the head with enough force to smash you through floorboards in appropriate."

"I agree," Goei nodded. "At the very least she could give you a chance but she absolutely refuses to give you that much since whenever a chance does come up, her temper or some meddling influence seems to ruin the moment. From what you've told me she expects you to be the one to change while she doesn't have to lift a finger. Marriage is about working together and compromising, not bickering almost every time you see each other and meddling with each others' affairs. It seems Akane often gets in the way of your fights claiming she's a martial artist yet doesn't want you to get in the middle of hers. She acts like she doesn't care but when it seems like another girl wants to get closer to you, she makes a big scene of pulling you away and then dropping you when someone calls her out on it. That girl just can't seem to make up her mind."

"Why do Uncle Genma and his friend want you to marry her so badly anyway?" asked Hakufu. "I mean, she can't clean, can't sew, can't cook or anything!"

"Neither can you," Goei snickered.

"Well I'm not interested in any of those things!" Hakufu snapped back. "Even if I was I would make sure I was really good at it before I tried showing it to someone!"

"Like your flower arranging and tea ceremony?" asked the shifty elder woman with a grin.

"Quiet!" Hakufu cried back.

As the two females argued, Kokin turned to his relative to continue his conversation, "Hakufu did make a good question though Ranma. Just why do Uncle Genma and his friend want you to marry that girl of all people? I mean, he has two other daughters doesn't he?"

"Well, I'm not too sure," Ranma shrugged. "I guess the eldest sister sees me like a little brother and she's more like the mother figure I never had until I found Mom again. If we got married then it wouldn't last very long and we'd probably try for an annulment or something, meaning the schools wouldn't be joined. The middle sister is a money-grubbing pain in the neck who'd probably sell the dojo before trying to open it to students again. They probably think Akane and I are the best choices since we're both marital artists."

"You need more than one common interest to make a marriage work though," Kokin sighed.

"I've been learning that pretty quickly," Ranma nodded, turning to his meal.

As everyone ate, Ranma had to admit that he was a little worried that his relatives wouldn't believe him since no one outside of Nerima had to deal with the things he had dealt with in the past. However, Goei had been dealing with some pretty fantastic things herself unknowingly to him while Kokin was fully aware of the fate of the fighters such as himself and Hakufu. The booby bombs of Nanyo was just naïve enough to believe just about anything anyone told her, especially if it involved food.

Eating the last of her rice, Goei eyed her nephew with concern. He had been dealt a bad hand in life and it wasn't getting any easier with his father selling him off at every opportunity. The things that made life worth living to a young man, girls, fun, friends, excitement, etc, all of it had been denied to him in favour of being turned into the ultimate bargaining chip to his lazy and greedy father for the chance to be able to live on easy street for the rest of his life. Well, as his aunt she just wouldn't let that keep happening.

"So Ranma, since the girls back home can't seem to hold your interest, how about the girls out here in Kanto?" she asked with a grin. "Do you think any of them might be on your list for a date?"

"MPH! –cough- what?" Ranma choked, having a mouthful of rice at the time of the question.

"Why, surely you have to have gained interest in at least one girl you've met since coming here," Goei smiled. "Was it that Kanu girl you spoke so fondly about? Maybe it was that dangerous Ryofu girl you want to walk on the wild side with or do you like dominating your women like you did that Ryomou?"

"Aunt Goei! Please!" Ranma groaned. "I have enough girl problems!"

"Which is why it's the perfect time to meet some new girls!" Goei insisted. "None of your usual problems are here now so it's a great time to try and meet someone new to have a fling or two with. Maybe you'll even fall in love and find true happiness despite the demands of family members! Oh, it's like a romance novel!" giggling, she gave up into thoughts of what men and women in such novels do when passion ignites into carnal desire.

"And there she goes," Kokin sighed.

"I don't need this," Ranma groaned, ignoring the part of him that vehemently agreed with his aunt despite knowing the numerous problems following her suggestions would no doubt bring.

* * *

It was a new day in the Kanto region and the people were going about their business once again. Men and women of all ages went about their daily business as they did what they needed to do that day. In most cases, they went to work, school, or whatever it was they did with their days. For the fighters, it was to go to school, learn, fight if they needed to, and wait for any and all orders from their leader which may come their way. The streets had their usual hustle and bustle, filled with people who were in on the whole war of the seven schools or were simply doing their best to pretend it wasn't happening so that they wouldn't have to get involved.

The Shu household was no different as the residents were already getting through the day. Kokin was delegated to simple tasks such as sweeping and similar jobs since he was still recovering from the beating that Saji had given him, sporting a bandage around his head with more on his cheeks and chin to show for it. Goei on the other hand was hanging laundry to dry, wearing an apron and kerchief over her kimono and hair to keep it safe from getting dirty. As for Hakufu and Ranma…

"Hey Hakufu! Wake up! We're going to go training!" Ranma called, knocking on his cousin's door sharply. Having enjoyed sleeping in for a change rather than being tossed out into the koi pond, Ranma felt that Hakufu had been sleeping long enough and needed to get up as well.

"Good luck waking that girl up," Goei sighed as she stretched a pair of panties so to get the extra water out of them. "She sleeps like the dead until she feels like waking up."

"Is that so?" asked Ranma, looking to his aunt. "Well I've got a perfect solution to that." Sliding open the door to the room, Ranma stepped inside. Kokin, mildly concerned with what might occur, stepped closer to the door before his pigtailed relative came back out holding…HAKUFU'S HEAD!

"WAAAGH!" the blue-haired boy screamed, recoiling backwards. "Ranma! How could you? She was your cousin!"

"Huh? What are you freaking out about now?" Ranma sighed, holding up the decapitated head to reveal not Hakufu's bloody and dead face, but a doggy face on a ball with its tongue sticking out mockingly with a wig styled after Hakufu's hair on it. In his other hand was a note scrawled with the missing girl's handwriting. "Hakufu apparently took off to deal with her heartbreak of losing or something."

"Oh?" asked Goei, looking at the two boys. Sighing, she shook her head. "That girl, making us all worry about her yet again. Oh well, I'm sure she'll come back when she's good and ready."

"Aunt Goei, this is serious!" Kokin cried. "Hakufu could be at risk or something out there! Who knows if some other kind of fighter finds her and decides to take her on!"

"Sounds like she'd probably have fun," Ranma shrugged. "Busting some heads might be what she needs to get some of her confidence back if you ask me. She should probably make sure those guys deserve it before she tries though."

"Ranma!" Kokin cried, rounding on him. Weren't either of his relatives the least bit worried about his cousin?

"Okay, okay," Ranma sighed, trying to placate his cousin's cousin. "If you're really that worried about her then we can go look for her and make sure she's okay. Once we know she's okay then can we can think of what to do next. Maybe then we can start on her training so she doesn't lose so badly again."

"Right, I'll take the left after we leave the house, you can take the right!" Kokin nodded before dashing off towards the entrance of the estate. Ranma just watched him leave before heaving a sigh. Honestly, Hakufu may have not had much in terms of actual skill, but she did have power and some experience on her side in case she got into trouble with some common thugs or something.

"She'd better appreciate this," Ranma sighed as he strolled after his relative at a less panicked pace.

Goei simply watched the two go before a smile bloomed over her face, "Such manly and responsible boys those two are."

* * *

**Nerima**

Nabiki whistled a tune to herself as she counted up the take from the latest rounds of bets and such as she snacked on some cookies in the dining room. The fathers were off at a bar somewhere getting smashed once again but thankfully with their own money rather than with the savings for a change. They had been whining and moaning about Ranma leaving and not taking his rightful fiancée with him to meet her future in-laws non-stop since they heard he left. Kasumi was pleasantly humming as she hung the laundry while Nodoka handled the daily trash. Akane was once again hanging out with her friends, although she was still grumpy as ever since Ranma was out of sight and in her mind, off doing perverted things like she thought he always did when she wasn't there to 'keep an eye' on him. No doubt she would be complaining to her friends.

While Furinkan was still being repaired, Nabiki knew of several ways to make money of events in town, bets, information, and even a bit of extortion if it came down to it. She had all the connections through the district and always knew how to make them work for a rather pleasant amount of profit. Since Furinkan was closed for the moment, lots of students were buying information on what was happening with Ranma and making bets in advance for the next fight. All in all, it was a very tidy sum

BOOM!

"Nihao!"

A sum which just went out the window as Shampoo once again burst through the garden wall and leaped onto the veranda without even waiting for an invitation to come inside. Despite her broken accent, Nabiki knew Shampoo was not stupid nor ignorant of Japanese ways. Frankly it was her way of spiting Akane and her family during her quest to make Ranma her husband like her laws dictated. Frankly, Nabiki doubted that anyone but Ranma could get her to stop that if he asked, but that would no doubt make her think he was warming up to the idea of being her husband and she would redouble her efforts in claiming him. Usually those kinds of efforts resulted in lots of damaged property and all out brawls.

Shampoo trotted inside the house and looked down at Nabiki who just continued munching on her cookies, pretending Shampoo's expensive means of entry didn't bother her, "Shampoo need information from Mercenary Girl. Shampoo willing to pay too too good price for it."

"I'm listening," Nabiki answered. Maybe if she played this right she could get Shampoo to pay for the wall or at least the majority of it.

"Shampoo want to know where Airen is," Shampoo spoke. "He not at school and he not at house of Kitchen Destroyer. Shampoo look for him all over but not find him. Now she ask Mercenary Girl where he is."

"10,000 Yen," Nabiki replied, extending her hand. Shampoo huffed, but produced the number of bills needed to pay off the middle Tendo for her information. Counting up the sum and finding it adequate, Nabiki began to spill. "Ranma left to visit some relatives since he now has some spare time for it. I'm not going to tell you where they are since he specifically requested and paid for not being found. He just wants a nice and peaceful visit for a little while."

"Aiyah!" Shampoo gaped, seemingly surprised by the information. "Airen has relatives? Why he no tell Shampoo! She need to meet them as future wife! Must go get good outfit for meeting!" Once again ignoring the fact that Ranma had wanted peace as she did every time she was told to leave Ranma alone, Shampoo burst from the house and out through the hole she had made. Her mind was awhirl with how she would make a good impression on Ranma's relatives and hopefully get some support from her future husband's family in her claim. She had even forgotten that she didn't know where Ranma's relatives were. No doubt she'd be back later to demand that information too.

Normally Nabiki would have sold that tidbit of information for top yen, but Ranma had a damn good reason to see his relatives concerning his cousin's tastes and the troubles in the Kanto region. Concern for family was a damn good reason for keeping things secret from the ever-meddling and destructive Nerima Wrecking Crew. Of course, it wouldn't stop them from trying to bribe, whine, and threaten their way to the information. Nabiki couldn't put a price on family love despite her ability to put a price on most everything else. She wasn't a martial artist either, but a girl who lived in the modern day and thus she didn't subscribe to that sense of honour so shaming information out of her would never work. She also knew that everyone who did want the information had a sense of honour despite how selective it was at times so they would never carry out their threats to attack an unarmed person like her. Even if they did, she had dirt on all of them so it would be a very bad thing to try and take out their frustrations on her.

"That's two quarters," Nabiki commented to herself as she counted the cash again. "Ukyo and Kodachi should be coming for information soon. With the two of them, it should cover the rest of the cost for the wall and maybe get that new CD player I wanted."

Burying the money in her pocket, she looked back to her bets and odds sheets and continued working.

* * *

**Kanto**

In one part of the Kanto region Hakufu was walking beside a new friend. The two of them had met after Hakufu had been convinced by two guys to head to a karaoke bar where they promised to treat her to lunch. However, it was just a trap for the both of them to try and take advantage of her. Before they could get started though, the new girl Hakufu was walking with at present burst her way inside and beat the pair of them up.

The girl wore a green/blue skirt which was worn like overalls with a white shirt underneath. She also had tan skin which made her clothes appear brighter and had short messy black hair. An odd aspect about her was the red weights which she wore around her ankles and wrists, but the added weight really didn't seem to bother her at all. The most important feature though was that she was wearing a gold bead on her left ear.

The two girls were walking over a bridge which hung over a river while the odd car raced past them. Having just escaped the karaoke bar and leaving the punks to deal with all of the injuries that the girl had given them for their attempted stunt, the two of them hadn't had the chance to talk until now

"You know, I heard you were pretty stupid, but I didn't think you were THAT stupid," the mystery girl chuckled slightly.

"Hey, you called me stupid," Hakufu huffed. "Besides, we just met! Anyway, when a guy says he'll treat you, you normally go with them."

"Um…no you don't, normally," the mystery girl smiled weakly.

"Really?" asked the strawberry blonde as if hearing that tidbit of wisdom for the very first time. Shrugging she turned to look at her new friend. "So just where are we going anyway? I'm on a broken heart healing trip so I'm a little busy right now," her stomach giggled, bringing a slight smile from the mystery girl. "Actually, right now the more serious problem is how to get some lunch."

"Broken heart?" asked the mystery girl, quirking an eyebrow.

"Yeah. I was utterly defeated in my last battle. It was a really shameful experience. Even though my cousin says he's going to train me so he can make me stronger I still feel like I have to do this," Hakufu sighed with more than a little depression in her voice. "Ever since that defeat, I just suddenly felt like I didn't like myself anymore.

'_Cousin? Does she mean Kokin Shuyu?_' the mystery girl thought to herself as she decided to make her comment. "Well, your brain may not remember, but your body sure does."

"Huh?" Hakufu blinked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"BASICS!"

The sounds of the male yelling out caught both girls' attention as they looked down to the riverside. A whole group of fighters were together, circling around one male who was by himself. If Ranma were to be there, he would have recognized the guy as one of the three he had met when he woke up yesterday morning at Kyosho Academy. While Ranma would have recognized the fighter, he never got the fighter's name, Kakoton Genjou.

"BASICS! BASICS!" Kakoton yelled, punctuating each shout by pounding an enemy in the face and knocking them down with swollen or bleeding faces. With the fighters giving him space to begin a counterattack, Kakoton growled in frustration before shouting into the air, "Man! Fighters today are hopeless! Doesn't anyone know the basic skills anymore?"

Entranced by the events of the fight and the strange fighter, Hakufu began to get closer, heading down the stairs so to get a better view, letting the mystery girl simply watch with a smile on her face.

* * *

**Elsewhere…**

Ranma yawned as he stood atop a building, looking over the streets in a half-hearted attempt to find his cousin. While he was admittedly mildly concerned that something could happen to her, Ranma knew that Hakufu could take care of herself against the average foe and only someone like Ryomou, Kanu, Taishiji, or someone on their level would really be the ones to worry about but they probably wouldn't be the ones to go after her unless another one of those stupid Imperial Orders went out. Really, what were the odds that such an order would be made on the day that Hakufu decided to go out by herself?

"Kokin's blowing this way out of proportion," the pigtailed fighter sighed, leaping from the building and landing on the sidewalk. Incidentally, he frightened more than a few people who were nearby when he did so. "Hakufu isn't completely helpless like he acts like she is. Jeez."

Ranma had taken to using the high ground in seeing if he could spot Hakufu, taking care to notice places which served good food. If there was one thing Hakufu enjoyed as much as fighting then it was eating. Frankly it was something the two of them enjoyed doing, especially when it came to sweets and such things. However, none of the places he had found seemed to be hosting his slightly ditzy cousin at the moment. Unconcerned as of yet but still getting annoyed, Ranma continued his search.

"Man, how hard is it to find one girl in this place?" Ranma asked himself as he entered one of the recreational park areas. So far he hadn't seen hide nor hair of Hakufu and he was running out of ideas to try and find her. "Hakufu's nowhere near smart enough to-" his critique of his cousin's intelligence and/or skill was suddenly cut off when the sounds of shouts and battle cries began to come out from nearby. Concerned, he allowed his ears to guide him.

Trailing from the brickwork paths, Ranma moved to the trees which decorated the park. Normally the trees would be sparsely placed, but in this case there seemed to be enough to give people some privacy if they really wanted it. Most likely in this case they were being used by a bunch of fighters for yet another skirmish in their war with each other. Passing by a bunch of trees, the pigtailed fighter soon found that this was indeed the case as he found the source of the noise.

The source of the noise came from a moderate group of fighters which ranged into the same area that Ranma and Kokin had taken on when he first appeared at Nanyo. They were all dressed in regular clothes, all of them sporting magatama beads of various colours, although all of them were either jade or bronze, indicating lower level fighters. About half of them were sporting pipes or wooden swords. All of the fighters were circled around a lone target, a single girl who wore a school uniform which had a black skirt with a white top and a brown vest. She wore white gloves and had long silver hair which trailed down to her backside. She was definitely curvy, but Ranma's eyes were trained more on the fact that she was holding a katana in one hand with it's sheathe in the other and that her eyes were closed.

"We've got you now Seito bitch!" one of the fighters grinned.

"Do you now?" asked the girl, her eyes still very much closed. "I'll believe that when you actually have me."

"What was that?" growled another fighter.

"Let's get her!" shouted another.

Ranma sighed as he watched the fighters beginning to advance with another battle cry. As far as he could tell, none of the goons were going to last very long in a one on one fight with the silver-haired girl. None of them had much skill beyond street fighting and not one of them who had a weapon were very proficient in it. They were holding them wrong and gripping them like baseball bats rather than like actual weapons. The girl on the other hand was in a ready stance without even looking like she was in one. She knew exactly what she was doing as she held that sword and had all the skill needed to take down all of the goons there. What was rather impressive to Ranma was that she was apparently going to do it with her eyes closed.

The first of the thugs reached the girl and suddenly she was a blur of movement with a slash of her sword. The blade cut through the pipe the goon was holding and the force from the swing itself sent him tumbling backwards. The girl continued her spin and connected with a kick to another fighter's torso, sending him sprawling back into his fellows. She was a practical blur of silver and slashes which cut through the weapons of the fighters who attacked her while her kicks and her sheathe were used to fend off those who weren't armed. It was like a dance of battle, but to Ranma's eyes, she was probably capable of going much faster. Apparently she wasn't taking the fight very seriously.

"Whew," he whistled lowly. "She's something else."

Unknown to him, the girl's ears perked slightly as he made that statement. Smiling slightly, she continued her battle. Slash after slash destroyed the weapons which were being used against her while her agile kicks and swings of her sheathe was leaving those who were unarmed battered and bruised. As quickly as the battle had been started by the group of fighters, it had been ended by the silver-haired girl who came to a sudden stop before sheathing her sword slowly before it clicked into place at the hilt.

Smiling softly, she turned her head over to where Ranma had been standing, "Did you enjoy the show?"

"Bwuh?" Ranma blinked. "Wha-you mean you knew I was here?"

"Not immediately," the girl answered, beginning to walk around the unconscious and groaning thugs as she approached Ranma. He noticed that she still had her eyes closed even though the fight had ended. Was she blind? "You were very silent in your approach, no doubt not wanting to get caught by the fighters here. I did not even know you were there until you made the comment that I was 'something else'. I heard you and was then able to tell you were there."

"Uh, heh," Ranma flushed slightly, scratching the base of his pigtail. Apparently the girl's hearing was a lot sharper than he had initially thought. He just hoped that she didn't take his comment the wrong way and he ended up sticking his foot in his mouth trying to placate her anger.

"Don't be embarrassed. I'm actually flattered a fighter of your calibre finds me so impressive," the girl smiled. Standing in front of Ranma, she bowed slightly. "My name is Chou'un Shiryuu. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ranma Saotome."

"How'd you know my name?" Ranma asked with a blink. Was this girl psychic along with strong or something?

"I was there when you introduced yourself to Kanu before you fought her," Chou'un replied. "I don't think anyone in Seito isn't talking about it at some point during their day. You made quite the impression on everyone there, especially Kanu."

"You know Kanu?" Ranma asked curiously.

"Oh yes. She happens to be a good friend of mine," Chou'un answered with a nod. "I could tell from my view of the fight that she was enjoying herself near the end just as much as you were. At that point it was very clear that you weren't there to hurt anyone. I think even Chouhi could see that much when it was all done."

"You saw?" asked the pigtailed fighter. "But aren't you…"

"I'm not blind Ranma-san," Chou'un laughed lightly. "I just prefer to use my other senses when I go about my day. I rarely open my eyes unless I think it's for a very good reason."

"Oh," Ranma flushed slightly. It looked like yet another foot-in-mouth moment for him. "Sorry. I just thought since you had your eyes closed even after the fight ended…"

"Don't worry. I am not offended," Chou'un reassured the pigtailed martial artist. "You are by far not the first to assume such a thing about me. With the way I have my eyes closed all the time and how sharp my remaining senses are, I'd be surprised if someone didn't assume I was blind when they first met me."

"Still, I shouldn't have assumed that," Ranma grinned weakly, still flushed. He had to admit that despite some of his little blunders in the conversation, he was finding Chou'un to be very easy to get along with. She seemed quite peaceful despite her skill as a fighter and very much not the type to jump to conclusions like the Fiancée Brigade back in Nerima did. In fact, she seemed ready to correct him on his mistakes and just laugh them off.

'_Maybe I should consider settling down out here,_' Ranma's mind thought treacherously. Thoughts of being able to hang out with people who enjoyed the fighting arts as much as he did and not having to fight because someone's ego was bruised or because someone jumped to conclusions and decided that he had to die just punctuated the point his brain tried to make, but Ranma shook them off in favour of talking to Chou'un, "So just who are these jokers who tried to get the jump on you?"

"People from Yoshuu I presume," the silver-haired girl answered, turning her head towards the downed punks. "I recognized their voices from some previous scuffles that Seito had with their school. I'm not sure right now, but I think they're trying to pick off stronger fighters with sheer numbers now so if or when more serious battles start, they'd have a better chance of winning."

"Jeez. Some people," Ranma frowned. If this war between the schools was supposed to be a re-enactment of that Romance of the Three Kingdoms story then at the very least the people involved should have some warrior's pride and act like true fighters and less like stupid punks. "So what brought you out here alone anyway? I'd have thought that even with your skill you'd bring a partner in case someone who might cause trouble tried to get the jump on you."

"Oh, just errand for our leader," Chou'un shrugged. "Ryuubi does love her books and heard that there was a sale going on at one of her favourite shops. However, we prefer she stays at our school or our home in case incidents such as this happen, petty thugs trying to make a target out of anyone who isn't part of their school or allied with them," Her smile then turned slightly wider with a sly undertone. "Although, having a partner while I'm out in face of this attack does sound like a good idea. Perhaps you'd be so kind as to walk with me?"

"Well…I," Ranma mumbled. Truth be told he should have been looking for Hakufu, but he still thought that she would be okay and would come back home when she felt sure of herself again, despite Kokin's panic-driven thoughts which said otherwise. Besides, he hadn't really had much of a clue as to where she went and simply accompanying Chou'un on her errand didn't seem like it would take too long, "I…I guess I could since it probably wouldn't be too far out of my way."

"Excellent," Chou'un smiled. Taking Ranma's arm, she grasped it between her own securely and comfortably. Tightly enough so that he could feel the swell of her breasts easily enough. Ranma flushed and tried not to stammer like an idiot or try to escape since it seemed that Chou'un wasn't going to let go. Looking to her new escort, the silver-haired swordswoman smiled, "Shall we?"

"Uh…sure," Ranma nodded, trying to fight down the blush on his cheeks. With Chou'un taking the lead, the pair walked around the unconscious enemy fighters and towards their destination.

The pair walked down to the path before coming back out onto the main streets where Chou'un led the way to what Ranma assumed to be her leader's favourite book store. To anyone else on the street, the two of them merely looked like a couple who may be playing hooky and enjoying some time on the town together. Some adults scoffed at them but others noticed the magatama bead around Ranma's neck or the sword in Chou'un's hands and decided not to make a scene. However, as much of a pair the two of them looked, there was more going on underneath.

'_He's nervous,_' Chou'un thought to herself. She could feel Ranma's pulse in his arm and it was quick, indicating a degree of unease. The muscles were likewise tense, as if anticipating an attack or something. '_He's also apparently expecting something. It can't be because of me, is it?_' Looking to her escort, she poised the question, "You seem tense Ranma-san, am I making you uncomfortable?"

"Oh, no, it's nothing you're doing," Ranma replied, cursing his normal reaction to any girl getting close to him. "I've sort of…had some…bad experiences when I'm in a moment like this," mentally he chided himself, '_Baka! Don't treat Chou'un like she's one of the Fiancée Brigade! None of them are here and she doesn't seem the type who'll lash out and hit me at the sign of something she doesn't like!_' Of course, as much as his mind kept saying that, his body had learned otherwise from experience with the numerous women who entered his life in Nerima and thus went by instinct.

"Bad experiences with a beautiful girl on your arm?" Chou'un asked with slight confusion. If her eyes had been open at the time, she would have blinked. "I would think that a handsome fellow like you would have nothing but good experiences with girls."

"I wish," Ranma sighed, slumping slightly. Chou'un noticed the slacking of his muscles, possibly meaning he was relaxing, but the tone of his voice indicated a fair amount of depression. Were those bad experiences he mentioned really so bad? "Whenever I am in the company of a pretty girl like you, someone always butts into the middle of it and ends up starting a fight over it and in the end, even though I win, I always get hit with something blunt or heavy, sometimes both."

"What?" Chou'un asked in disbelief.

"My home district is…not a very stable place," Ranma admitted succinctly, thinking of the tamest description of Nerima he knew. "Almost everyone is a martial artist, related to a martial artist, knows a martial artist, or has a martial artist friend. Everyone develops or tries to develop styles there from just about everything. I could tell you the goofiest styles I have ever heard of and I had to end up fighting them."

'_No change in pulse. He's telling the truth. Amazing,_' Chou'un thought to herself. "I would think that being inside such a district would bring about a fair amount of challengers. So many styles and practices would do wonders for training and experience."

"I suppose it does," Ranma admitted. "And if were just that I wouldn't complain, but…" he trailed off. Chou'un frowned slightly at his hesitation. Was she pressing too hard for information? She didn't want Ranma to be wary of her or of Seito.

"Do you feel comfortable telling me?" asked Chou'un. "Please know that you don't have to. We have only just met after all," as she was saying that though, the silver-haired girl was silently hoping that Ranma would continue talking. She was getting a very candid view of him outside of battle and it was making her even more intrigued. She never would have guessed that the bright young man she witnessed fighting Kanu would be so easily depressed by mention of his home district. She also hoped to find out why he seemed so averse to intimacy. That would play a big roadblock in her plans should the reason remain undiscovered.

"Oh, it's not that I don't want to talk about it," Ranma sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "It's just that if I said it out loud there someone would take offense and try to attack me for it," taking a breath, he continued, "I've been raised for as long as I can remember to hold honour in a high degree. Honour is important to me and it's one of the things I can proudly say that I can call my own. Sure I've stretched it a few times, but I've always held fast to it. One of my problems with my home district is that no one else seems to hold it to the same degree."

"They don't?" Chou'un frowned. Well, it was the modern era so not everyone would consider honour as important as people in the old days did. However, Chou'un as a swordswoman held it in a high degree as did Kanu and others in Seito. Apparently Ranma held it just as high as they did, even if no one around him at his home seemed to do the same.

"Nope," Ranma shook his head, "Some preach and harp about it, but they never seem to follow the rules. Those bad experiences I mentioned? Mostly caused by girls who appealed to my honour, trying to make me do what they say and I usually get attacked by some jealous suitor for them or something. They all preach about honour, but in the end they just ignore it and use martial arts as an excuse to do whatever they want."

Again, if Chou'un had her eyes open, she would have had them as wide as saucers, "I see," she nodded. Things were staring to become clear, if only a little. "You were nervous because you instinctively thought some rival for my attention would try to separate us and get rid of you so I would pay attention to them?"

"It's happened so many times before I just do it out of instinct," Ranma shrugged. "Sorry if I spoiled your good mood."

"Oh no, you don't have to be sorry," Chou'un smiled reassuringly. "I'm actually happy you trust me enough to tell me that much of yourself."

"Well, to be honest since coming here I've met so many powerful people who hold honour and the code of the warrior to a high degree, its kind of easier to trust people out here because of how they hold those values," Ranma grinned, scratching his cheek. "Believe it or not I feel more at ease here with fighters of your calibre in the middle of this war than I do at home with all of the martial artists and the day to day life."

"I see. Thank-you for giving me that trust Ranma," Chou'un smiled. She could feel the tension leaving the young man's muscles and his pulse slow down to a normal and steady beat. It seemed that she had passed some sort of instinctive test that Ranma put to people he knew. She suspected the test involved seeing if she believed in the rules of honour either through a match like he did with Kanu or by watching her fight like he did, but perhaps it was just a subconscious thing that even Ranma himself didn't know he gave. Either way, Chou'un could feel that she had passed and she was glad for it. Continuing to smile, she spoke, "I promise I will not betray that trust."

"Thanks," Ranma smiled.

* * *

TIME BREAK

* * *

**Seito Shrine**

Chou'un slid open the door to the shrine she called home, this time carrying a bag filled with books in her free hand. Stepping inside, she slipped her shoes off before pulling on her indoor slippers. Stepping onto the hardwood floors, she didn't get even two steps before the familiar and downright cute face of Ryuubi Gentoku appeared before her, her eyes large and glittery like a puppy about to receive a treat.

"Did you get my books? Were they all there?" she asked eagerly.

"Yes. Here they are," Chou'un smiled, holding out the bag of books.

Ryuubi was a flash of movement as she took the bag and dashed of for one of her usual reading perches to find it. As Ryuubi vanished around the corner, Kanu came around, missing the missile which had been her leader. Shaking her head, she looked over at her fellow fighter, noticing that her usual peaceful appearance seemed to have a bit more life in it, "You seem to be in a good mood. Did something happen?"

"I happened to run into Ranma Saotome while out on Ryuubi's errand," Chou'un answered. Kanu's eyes widened slightly at the admission.

"And what happened when you did?" she asked calmly, but there was a taste of jealousy in her voice.

"Well, we walked to the bookstore Ryuubi wanted to go to and he helped me find a few books," Chou'un answered, walking down the hall with Kanu next to her. "We also talked a bit. I managed to learn a fair bit about him."

"Such as?" asked Kanu, hoping for an example.

"He holds honour to a high degree just like you and I," the swordswoman answered. "It also appears he is somewhat shy around women unless he feels he can trust them," Well, that was putting it mildly after hearing some of the stories Ranma had been willing to tell which helped create his reflex of being tense around girls who were interested in him, but it got the message across just the same. Strangely enough there were a lot of gaps in those stories, which made Chou'un ponder if it was simply those instances which made Ranma so jittery or if there was more to them than what had been said.

"And he began trusting you so soon after just meeting you?" asked Kanu with more than a little suspicion.

"The only reason he trusted me was because he found that I hold honour to a great degree," Chou'un replied. "I believe he unconsciously tests people by either fighting them or watching them fight and gauging how they deal with their opponents. You and I both passed that test after you fought him and he witnessed me fighting some low-class fighters from Yoshuu who thought I made an easy target because I was by myself. It was enough for him to at least begin to relax in my presence when I was holding his arm."

Kanu's frown grew larger slightly. She couldn't believe she was beginning to act so…immature, about how Chou'un had gotten closer to Ranma while she herself was merely an acquaintance at best. Chou'un was single and a woman just as much as a warrior. She was fully in her rights to desire Ranma and try to get closer to him. Yet, somehow Kanu just felt jealousy flare up at the mere thought of Chou'un being closer to him than she was. What was it about him that made her feel that way? She barely knew the man and yet he seemed to just worm his way into her desires after just one battle and a short conversation. It made no sense!

"So you're saying he now trusts you enough to relax in your presence?" asked Kanu, her flare of jealousy growing by just saying the words.

"He'd do the same for you if you manage to catch up with him," Chou'un answered. "He wanted to trust me, I could tell when he spoke to me at times about himself. He wanted to believe that he could trust me not to try and turn on him when his back was to me. I suspect that there is a story to that, but he is not comfortable enough around me to say that much about himself yet."

"So what else did you learn?" pressed Kanu.

"Surprisingly little," Chou'un sighed in disappointment. "He seems happy to talk about incidents and such that happened in his life, other people who were involved, and where he came from but when it comes to his involvement and how some people are connected to him there is very little detail. With the pride he takes in his skills I find his lack of enthusiasm somewhat odd."

"Hmm," Kanu pondered. That indeed did sound odd. Kanu knew Chou'un well enough to know that she would not lie to her friends and comrades. Granted, this was less than a serious situation but Chou'un was still not one to lie to those close to her about anything, "So what else did you do with him?"

"After we purchased Ryuubi's list, he walked me back to the shrine and we said our goodbyes at the entrance" Chou'un smiled.

FLASHBACK

_Ranma and Chou'un were standing at the front arch to the Seito Shrine where apparently, Chou'un, Kanu, Chouhi, Ryuubi, and two others lived. Having spent more than his share of nights at shrines, the arrangement did not seem odd to him. He just figured that the girls had some connections somewhere and managed to land some rooms in the shrine while they went to school or something. Chou'un had kept her grip on Ranma's arm since leaving the bookstore so Ranma had to carry the bag of books. He didn't mind too much since talking to Chou'un and carrying the books helped keep his mind of how nice her body felt against his arm._

"_Well, here's my stop," the swordswoman sighed, reluctantly letting go of Ranma's arm._

"_Yep," Ranma nodded, handing the books over to his new friend. "I hope that Ryuubi girl enjoys them."_

"_I dare say she will," Chou'un smiled. "I really must thank you for spending time with me today. I think I managed to learn a little bit about you and I must say that I like what I've learned so far."_

"_Heh," Ranma smiled awkwardly, scratching the base of his pigtail. "Forget about it. I had fun too."_

"_Maybe we could do this again sometime then," Chou'un offered, smiling wider as she heard Ranma mumble an affirmative under his breath. He had been very shy when she tried to talk about relationships past why he seemed so tense around her. Still, it wasn't driving him away so she kept at least a little pressure on about intimacy. So far it seemed to get him to answer. Smiling, she continued, "Next I must apologize for something."_

"_Huh?" Ranma blinked. "For what?"_

"_This" Chou'un answered. Stepping up to Ranma she quickly stole a kiss from his left cheek, making his turn bright red. She was sorely tempted to open her eyes just to see the look on his face, but managed to control herself. "Consider it my way of saying thank-you for trusting me today. I could tell from the way you talked about past experiences you don't do that very often."_

"…_you're good," Ranma managed to speak out, running his fingers on his cheek._

"_Hmm," Chou'un smiled. Turning, she began to head towards the shrine itself before calling over her shoulder, "Please do consider Kanu's offer in joining us in Seito. I'd personally give you a grand welcome."_

_Ranma just watched her go, his face still red with a soft daze coming across it._

END FLASHBACK

Kanu's eye twitched as Chou'un finished her story. Taking a breath, she squashed the fires of jealousy insider of her chest. She was a warrior, she had better control of her emotions than some simple schoolgirl, "I'm surprised you're being so honest with what you've done and learned about Ranma to me. Aren't we rivals for him?"

"Yes, but this isn't a battle for pride, this is a battle for love," Chou'un answered. "If I fought you for Ranma like I would fight other fighters for our school, it wouldn't show him that I truly cared and would probably be ruining whatever chance I have at him. Proving I am better than you is not the goal, showing Ranma I can be the one for him is. It all comes down to him really and if he chooses me then I shall be happy for it. If he chooses you, I'd be disappointed, but it's hardly the end of the world."

Kanu nodded, agreeing with the statement, "Yes, this isn't a fight we usually train for, is it? The rules are different and so is the goal. I don't know what it is about him that makes me feel so attracted to him, but I think I'll enjoy trying to find out."

"You and me both," Chou'un giggled. "I don't think I've ever been so forward with someone ever. Whatever it is about him that makes me do it, I think I like it."

"Hmm," Kanu nodded with a faint smile, agreeing with her friend.

* * *

**Shu Household**

The sun was setting and the sky was bright orange when Ranma walked back onto the property, still slightly dazed by what had occurred with Chou'un. A kiss on the cheek wasn't exactly what anyone would call groundbreaking or world stopping, but to someone like Ranma who had received little, if any affection that he could actually appreciate and not get attacked not even ten seconds after receiving, it felt pretty nice. Chou'un's lips were as soft as her pale almost porcelain-like skin would suggest and the warmth of her body made it even nicer. Compared to other kisses he received like from Mikado in his girl form or from Shampoo and that Kiss of Marriage where it was more or less forced on him by someone who was convinced he would enjoy it or didn't care either way, it was probably the best kind of kiss he had received in his life.

More and more since coming to Kanto, Ranma was meeting the kinds of people who he felt martial arts should have produced over the years. Honourable, pride befitting of a warrior, a desire to be strong and being unafraid to actually work for it, and most of all, the kind of connection Ranma had always felt martial artists would share through the heart of a fighter was present in them. Tahshiji, Kanu, Hakufu, Chou'un, and even Kokin to an extent, all of them held the pride and honour of fighters to the same degree that he did. Buried even in a war with massive amounts of thugs, they still held to it. That kind of mindset was something Ranma had believed in, that he felt all true martial artists had.

Again, although his father's conditioning concerning women being a distraction and his own body's natural instinct to prepare for battle when intimacy became a factor, Ranma's eternally repressed libido came to the challenge, reminding him strongly about the shapely girls he had met thus far. Kanu and Chou'un were both fighters of honour and didn't seem that eager to hurt him, if at all. In Kanu's case it was after she determined that Ranma was not some kind of assassin and decided to have fun with their battle like he was. Even Ryofu and Ryomou who he had only met once had been classified as sexy by the pigtailed martial artist's repressed libido, but the feeling of unease he got from Ryofu on account of her coming from Rakuyo and the less than stellar circumstances he met Ryomou under kept any attraction at bay. However, in Kanu and now Chou'un's case, it was getting harder for him to not notice their exotic beauty and instead concentrate on the very impressive skills they wielded.

Walking through the front door, he didn't bother announcing that he was home and instead travelled straight to the living room. Upon entering, he saw his aunt smiling with a cup of tea in her hands and Kokin slumped against the table, mumbling to himself about something.

"Yo," Ranma greeted, catching his relative's attention. "Kokin, did you find Hakufu?"

"Yeah, she was at Nanyo fixing the damage her fight with Ryomou did," Kokin sighed, looking at his cousin. "I don't know where she got the tools though and she was wearing someone's jacket with the front of her dress ripped open."

"Told you she'd be fine," Ranma snickered, taking a seat. While Ranma had been known to freak out himself when Akane got into trouble with her fights, it's because he knew that while having some training, Akane didn't have the experience or the instinct to turn it into a real martial arts battle instead of the usual brawls she was used to with the Hentai Horde. Hakufu on the other hand definitely had the drive along with the strength and skill to get through any fight with an average opponent like the kinds which would populate most of Kanto. She didn't have a whole lot of martial arts skills, but she had seen enough to be able to emulate it and get her through most average fighters.

"I knew she would," Goei nodded with a smile as she sipped her tea. "So Ranma, how'd your day go?"

"Eh, made a new friend. She seemed nice," Ranma shrugged.

"Oh, so it was a woman eh?" Goei grinned. "So what's her name?"

"Um…Chou'un Shiryuu," Ranma answered. Hearing the name, Kokin began to choke on his own saliva.

"Chou'un Shiryuu?" he gaped. "Do you just go out so you can meet the best fighters in Kanto or what?"

"I met her after some thugs from Yoshuu tried to get the jump on her," Ranma answered, ignoring Kokin's outcry, "I didn't even need to get involved since she beat them all so fast. Get this though, she did it all with her eyes closed! Cool, huh?"

"With…her eyes closed?" Kokin blinked, growing pale. He already knew Kanu's strength thanks to the few appearances she made that Nanyo witnessed, but all he knew about Chou'un was through rumours and such. Beating a bunch of fighters with her eyes closed, just how strong were the fighters of Seito?

"My, how interesting. Was she pretty?" asked Goei with a teasing grin.

"Ummm…yeah," Ranma nodded. "She is.

"Hmmm, how very interesting," the elder woman grinned.

Neither Ranma nor Kokin felt right as they saw a gleam enter their aunt's eyes.

* * *

**Youshu**

Inside arguably one of the weakest school of the seven which had gone to war with each other, the three top fighters of Youshu met together inside their usual meeting room. Technically, it was the student council room, but since the fighters ran the school, it was saved for the personal use of the leader of Youshu and his lieutenants. Despite the school day being over and the majority of the students being gone, three of them were in the darkened room, looking at their cell phones.

The three in attendance were the leaders of Youshu, one of which being one of the top five fighters in all of Kanto, ranking next to Kanu and Chou'un. The first of the three was Hanno, the one who had ordered his men to attack Ranma based on the assumption that he was a new transfer to Nanyo and had to be put down before the enemy received more fighters. The second was Taishiji, one of the fighters Ranma had respect for despite having only met and fought them once. Lastly was a blonde fighter who wore a dark hooded sweater. He didn't stand out to much despite being the leader of Youshu. His name was Ryuyou.

"What the hell?" Hanno blinked, looking at the image on his phone. "I thought that since we were all called here that this chick would be super strong but looking at her-"

"Shut up!" Ryuyou snapped. "We have our orders! We must destroy her or Totaku will kill us!"

"It doesn't matter," Taishiji uttered. "I will follow his orders and enjoy the battle."

"Just make sure to get the job done Taishiji," Ryuyou frowned. "Remember that you're under orders so don't get caught up in fighting like you did with that Saotome guy. We were lucky that Totaku was more curious about him than he was about how you decided to do something on your own!"

"Heh, you expect me not to enjoy a good fight when someone skilled like him appears?" the braided teen smirked. "Even after all this time you don't seem to know me very well, do you?"

Ryuyou growled, but didn't press the issue further, "Just make sure you keep your mind on the mission."

The darkened room just continued to be illuminated only by the light of their cell phones, each depicting the form of Hakufu Sonsaku.

* * *

A/N: Well, what do you guys think? Worth pursuing?


	9. OOO: Medals of Ikki Tousen

**OOO MEDALS OF IKKI TOUSEN**

**Chapter 1: Of Fighters, Medals and Greeed**

The streets of Kanto seemed deathly quiet. No one was around, no one was driving any cars, no one was going for any happy-go walks. The playground was also strangely empty. The swings made creepy squeaking noises. Any one who was walking alone would feel like they have just entered some kind of horror movie. That or they were the last person on earth. Well, that all changed when a pack of men on motorcycles suddenly rode through the empty streets.

The motorcyclists stopped in front of the Kanto Art Museum in single file. They all stood their, as if they were waiting for something. It looked like their waiting paid of when the museum door busted opened in flames. Out of the flames came something so strange, so out of the ordinary almost no one would believe it but it was happening just the same. They were humanoid figures made out of metal coins. The collected coins clanked as beings walked. In flashes of light, the figures took solid forms. One was green with the form of an insect. The second one was blue and feminine like with the form of a fish. The third was black and yellow with the look of a cat. And the last one was bulky with the face of a mammoth. All four of the monsters seemed uncaring of the weapons which were pointed at them and simply strode on without a care in the world.

The motorcyclist in the middle, whom appeared to be a leader, picked up a radio from his belt and called his boss, "This is Shintaro Goto Foundation's Ride Vendor 1st Squad motorcycle brigade. The Medals have awakened. Orders?"

"Eliminate them," a grim voice ordered.

"Yes sir." He took out a bazooka cannon and aimed it at the advancing figures. His men mimicked his actions and aimed their bazookas. Wordlessly, they aimed and fired. Instantly, the figures reverted back to coins and took of into the sky, leaving the explosions behind them. Shintaro gestured his hand forward, commanding the brigade to go after the retreating metal beings.

The first squad chased after one of the four clusters to a highway overpass before it reconfigured into the form of the insect monster. It was coloured mainly back and green with chitin-like chest armour which had a yellow circle in the centre of its chest with green surrounding it, making plates that looked like muscles. From its shoulders ran long antennae not unlike a grasshopper while its arms were covered with black armour with a pair of long serrated blades coming form its right wrist. Its head was round with a long green visor which had round ends and a silver mouthplate which had the look of mandibles. Its final look was the horns which grew from its head that looked like kuwagata beetle horns. What did seem odd was that its legs didn't seem to have any sort of covering and instead looked like ancient bandaging not unlike what a mummy would have.

The insect monster watched as the two riders who pursued it rode at him with their weapons being aimed at its form. Uncaring, it leaped into the air, much like how a grasshopper would, and came back down, landing on both bikes which had the unfortunate luck of riding close together. Grabbing the riders by their necks, the insect monster leaped back into the sky, letting the motorcycles crash. Once reaching the apex of its jump, the monster let the pair go, letting them fall screaming to the ground before they landed with loud thuds on the concrete, leaving splatters of red across the stone surface. Landing on the ground once again, the insect beast smugly strolled away from the scene.

Not to far away, in front of a tunnel which went underground, the second mass of silver coins converged together to form the mammoth creature. Its legs were powerful and covered from head to toe in tarnished silver armour which spoke of power and endurance. Its feet seemed more like an elephant's rather than a humanoids. Its head seemed like a helmet with a small black visor with a short horn coming out of its forehead. On either side of where the jaw would be were a pair of tusks with a small trunk sticking out where the mouth would be. However, where torso and arm armour should have been was simply a humanoid torso and arms covered in black and brown wrappings, again, like a mummy.

The elephant creature just stood, staring dumbly at the two riders which were racing towards him, shooting with reckless abandon. The bullets collided with it, but the creature didn't seem to notice at all. Instead, as the riders drew closer, likely aiming to ram it, the monster smashed its fists into the motorcycles, crushing the front ends like tin cans and sending them end over end, riders and all, behind it before they crashed into the ground and exploded. The monster didn't seem all that concerned with the destruction that it had caused though. Instead, it just scratched its head like a monkey and began shuffling away, looking for something else to do.

Inside the tunnel itself appeared the third mass of coins which became the female fish-like monster. Its head seemed to have a helmet that looked like the body of a shark/whale hybrid of some sort that ended with her bright blue eyes. Her face was silver and had a rigid covering over her mouth. Her shoulders were covered with a dark blue cape that ran down her back almost regally, but her torso and arms were covered in black and brown bandages. Her legs were trim and smooth, coloured silver as they ended in high heel boots. Down the front of her legs were studs which made her legs seem almost like octopus tentacles.

The female beast seemed rather bored with the two motorcyclists which were charging at her while raising their guns. With a ladylike, but impatient, snort, she shot out her hand at them with an open palm. From it, a blast of water surged forward, quickly gaining the size of a small tidal wave which crashed against the riders, sending them and their bikes sprawling backwards. The two quickly crashed into the ground with their rides, but the fish monster didn't stop shoot until they were clear out of the tunnel. Satisfied that they were far enough away from her, she stopped the water pressure, allowing the two to slump, unmoving. Seeing her task complete, the fish monster began walking away with a dainty giggle.

At the opposite end of the tunnel the last mass of coins merged together to form the cat monster as it landed on the ground in a crouch. Its face was certainly feline, but made of black steel with metal studs on the forehead. Dark yellow cords not unlike dreadlocks came from the back of its head while its lower jaw was made of gray steel. Its torso was covered with more black armour with a yellow orb in the centre with a silver strip coming up the middle. The pectorals of the armour were covered in more metal studs which matched its shoulders. The monsters arms were covered in large black gauntlets which ended in sharp metal claws and once more covered in silver studs like the rest of the armour. However like its comrades, it was missing something, in this case, the armour for its legs. Rather than some covering like the rest of its armour, the monster's legs were merely brown and black bandages not unlike a mummy.

Watching the riders come at it, the monster snickered before leaping into the air. Somehow disobeying the laws of physics, it began spinning in their air at a ridiculous speed. The riders had no chance to dodge as the beast came at them, striking them so hard loud cracks could be heard from their torsos. At the same time, the force of the blows send them sailing off their bikes and crashing into the asphalt with loud thuds. Neither rider moved after that. Landing on the ground again, the cat monster laughed and simply began to stroll away as if bored.

Watching a monitor in front of the former museum light up with red light, the leader of the squad touched his radio again to relay what was happening. "Sir, the entire squadron has been eliminated. We were unable to subdue the Greeed."

"Understood," the voice at the other end of the line spoke. "Emergency crews will be there shortly. Return to base until further instruction."

"Hai!" the rider nodded before he shut down the radio. Offering a moment of silence for his fallen comrades, he hit the ignition to his motorcycle and began to drive away from the scene.

* * *

**Kougami Foundation HQ**

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you," a middle-aged man with black hair in a red suit and apron sang as he put the finishing touches to what appeared to be a white birthday cake by writing in chocolate icing while a gramophone singing the traditional 'Happy Birthday' song sang in the background. He was in a skyrise office filled with plush furniture and the only other person in the room was a woman in a frilly pink outfit. Continuing to write, the man continued to sing as he finished the cake, "Happy birthday dear…Greeed, happy birthday to you."

"Are you sure it was wise to place the Greeed's tomb here in Kaichou?" asked the woman with a slight tone of concern in her voice. "You know as well as I do that the Fighters will not simply lay back and let them do as they wish. They will fight them."

"Precisely why I had the tomb placed in Kanto Satonaka-kun!" the man, Kougami, grinned as he finished his cake. "The Fighters desire is the perfect counterpoint to the desire of the Greeed! The Fighters do destroy in their battles, but they fight with their desire to create their kingdoms such as they have done for centuries!" licking some icing from his fingers, he continued. "A desire powerful enough to create kingdoms is a power which even the Greeed would be forced to reckon with, and who has a stronger desire for this creation that the three kings?"

"Ryubi Gentoku, Sousou Motoku, and Hakufu Sonsaku," the woman nodded, looking to a book titled _The Romance of the Three Kingdoms_ which was on a desk in front of her. It was opened up to a page describing the leaders of the three kingdoms. "You believe they will be the Yang to the Yin of the Greeed?"

"I have already seen it myself," Kougami smiled. "Their desire for creation will be the key to thwarting the Greeed's desire for destruction."

Smiling at the sight of his completed cake, Kougami turned to look out the window of his office over the city.

* * *

The four beings identified as the Greeed entered a tunnel with banners coloured green, yellow, blue and grey hanging over the entrance, somehow appearing with just their presence alone. All four travelled through the tunnel without much of a care for anything, but it was when the bulky monster began to notice that something was wrong. The elephant-like Greeed felt his body tingling and in a slow voice spoke, "My…body…feels…weird…" The other three monsters immediately took note of their slow comrade's words and immediately began to check themselves over. To their displeasure, they finally seemed to notice that their incompleteness extended further than just missing pieces of armour.

The female Greeed spoke up, looking over her armour-less arms and torso, "It looks like we have an insufficient amount of medals, Core Medals to be precise."

The insect Greeed spoke, "What happened to us? Where are the rest of our Core Medals?"

The feline Greeed, in a lax manner, decided to speak, "I saw Ankh grab some of them."

"Ankh?" the elephant Greeed scratched his head.

"Doesn't he know what will happen to us?" the female Greeed stated.

"Damn him," the insect Greeed swore clenching its fist in rage.

"So then," the cat Greeed began, resting its hands behind its head, strolling lazily along the tunnel. "What should we do about it?"

"We find Ankh and take back our Core Medals, that's what!" the insect Greeed snapped, glaring at his comrade. If the rage was supposed to intimidate him, the cat Greeed didn't show it. Neither did the female or the elephant Greeed seem to be intimidated either. Of course, the female was long since used to the antics of her comrades while the elephant was probably not bright enough to really understand why it should be intimidated.

"And how do you propose we do that?" asked the fish Greeed. "With our power diminished because of our lack of Core Medals, it is going to be that much harder to find Ankh."

"I don't care!" the insect Greeed snapped. "I'll find him if I have to tear this human city down myself!"

Watching the insect Greeed go on the verge of a tantrum, the elephant Greeed simply scratched his head, "Find…Ankh? …oh…idea," Reaching to its own arm, the elephant Greeed pressed its fingers against the skin before they phased through it like it was water. After a moment of rummaging inside its own body, the Greeed brought out a silver coin which was the same kind as its body was made of. It was marked with an X on one side, but the other had an image of a bear or it.

"Hmmm?" the cat Greeed hummed, seeing that his comrade was up to something. "Gameru, what are you doing?"

The elephant Greeed, now known as Gameru, simply brought the coin up to his head. In the centre of his forehead a coin slot not unlike one found on a vending machine suddenly appeared. Uncaring of his sudden new facial feature, Gameru simply dropped the coin into the slot, making a metallic ringing noise. Once the coin was inside, the slot vanished altogether. Gamru then trembled as a gray and black void opened in his back depositing a creature onto the ground with a meaty thud.

Standing up, the creature revealed itself to have a bear's head with dangling earrings on its ears with a metal collar around its neck. Its arms and chest were strongly muscled and furry with red metal disks on the torso and shoulders. Its hands had metal orbs on the back of them and its hands were in fact large paws with black nails. It wore a simple loincloth decorated with animal bones of an undetermined species while its legs were wrapped in metal bindings with what appeared to be miniature bear traps on its kneecaps.

"Find…Ankh," Gamru ordered his creation. "Get…Core…Medals…"

"Nn!" the beast nodded before it dashed away, exiting the tunnel. Gameru then turned to look at his fellow Greeed, almost asking 'did I do good?'

"Well, it seems Gameru has the right idea for once!" the insect Greeed snorted.

"Why work ourselves to the bone when we can have a Yummy do it for us?" asked the cat Greeed with a chuckle. "I never thought I'd see the day where Gameru had a good idea."

"Good for you Gameru-chan!" the fish Greeed cooed in an almost motherly tone.

"Heh," the elephant Greeed laughed. If its face was more human, it would have been blushing.

"I'm going to go find a human to make a powerful Yummy," the insect Greeed announced as he began walking away from the tunnel. "Don't wait up for me."

"Oi, oi, I'm going on the search too," the cat Greeed laughed as it went in a different direction. "This sounds like fun!"

"It's not polite to leave a lady behind!" the fish Greeed scolded as she too left the scene.

Gamru merely shrugged and trotted off to parts unknown. As the four Greeed went their own ways, the four banners which represented them furled up and vanished, leaving no trace of the three monsters' appearance.

* * *

Many people of Kanto were in an uproar over what had happened to the museum. A crowd of onlookers had collected as emergency crews put out the fires and tended to what wounded there might be while the police investigated. Naturally the civilians were put behind a protective line so that no evidence would be accidentally compromised. However, in the wake of what the police assumed to be a bombing to cover up a robbery, not much hope was placed for evidence. Even if there was some, chances were that it was probably damaged or incinerated by the explosions.

Among the crowds was a teenage girl who was wearing a red skirt with a white blouse under a yellow vest, complete with a red ribbon. Perched to her ear was a jade magatama which sparkled in the sunlight. She had blonde hair which reached to about her shoulders and green eyes which held an immature sparkle in them, like someone who hadn't grown up in some way or another. Although while she was immature in some ways, her body certainly wasn't. It sported a figure which many girls worked hard to maintain and a breast size which had many of those same girls green with envy, although she never really took notice to how people reacted to her breasts. While she looked like a normal high school girl, she was in truth the leader of Nanyo Academy, her school. Her name was Hakufu Sonsaku.

Next to her was a young man wearing a male version of her uniform and he had short dark hair. The only real remarkable thing about him was the magatama on his ear which made him stick out as compared to others his age. However, that all just hid the true strength he had underneath. His name was Kokin Shuyu and he was Hakufu's cousin and in the eyes of the other students of Nanyo, her subordinate. Kokin was a generally easy-going guy and easy to get along with. However he was fiercely protective of Hakufu and despite being blood related, had something of a crush on her although he never tried to act on it. As Hakufu was generally childish and immature, it was his duty to be the responsible one when it came time to buckle down and be serious. Of course, that rarely happened since Hakufu could be a surprisingly reliable person.

"Hey Kokin," the blonde spoke up, checking out the destruction. "What do you think happened?"

"Well, I don't know," Kokin answered, scratching his head. "Someone mentioned something about thieves bombing the museum but no one has any answers right now."

"Who'd want to blow up an art museum though?" asked Hakufu in confusion. "Was there something a Fighter would want inside?"

"Aside from our magatamas and the Gyokuji, I don't think there's any kind of antique that the Fighters would be interested in," Kokin shrugged, just as stumped for answers as his cousin was. Sighing, he began to turn away from the sight. "No use pondering about it now though. We've got to get to school. You're the leader now if you haven't forgotten."

"Oh, right!" Hakufu nodded with a grin. "Lead the way Kokin!"

The Kanto area was by far not a peaceful place. Seven schools, Rakuyo, Kyosho, Nanyo, Seito, Yoshu, Youshuu, and Ryoshuu were at war with each other in a sometimes brutal gang battle to declare sovereignty of all of Kanto. Normally it was just seen as kids playing tough and to the adult community it was. However, in truth, the members of the battle were in fact chosen by fate to harbour the spirits of warriors from thousands of years ago who battled in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms in a brutal re-enactment of the ancient war. Further pushing the idea of fate was that all of the people in the war were named after the warrior that they were channelling.

Things were at a standstill for the moment since the death of Totaku, the leader of Rakuyo and formerly the strongest of the seven schools. In an attempt to avoid his fate and death at the hands of his number 2 Ryofu Hosen, Totaku had used a poisonous chi technique on Hakufu and threatened to let her die if she did not kill Ryofu. However, despite her best attempts Ryofu managed to kill Totaku in a suicide technique which ended her life. In his last moments, Totaku undid his technique on Hakufu and implanted his soul in her so to get revenge on his spy, Saji Genpou, otherwise known as Shishi Ouin. Again, he was foiled by the Haouryuu Hakufu possessed and his soul was devoured.

In the wake of Totaku's demise, Rakuyo was taken over by Kyosho, led by Sousou Motoku, one of the three most powerful leaders in the ancient era and a true leader in the modern era. Since Kyosho took over Rakuyo, it left Youshuu and Yoshu to rot since they were not included in the backroom bargain which Rakuyo had made in attempts to save itself. Despite the tectonic shift in power, little to no action was undertaken. Instead, Hakufu was elected by the Fighters of Nanyo to be the new leader as her heritage demanded and all of the schools were left to try and see how they could best profit from the shift in power. Scuffles happened here or there thanks to overly-ambitious Fighters, but nothing major had happened as of yet.

"Hey, wait up Kokin!" Hakufu cried, trying to squeeze through the crowds like her cousin had done. Since he was smaller, he had an easier time of it. Hakufu though was much taller and bigger so getting through crowds was somewhat more difficult at times, especially when it was past teenage boys who would purposefully make it harder so they could feel her breasts pressed against them. Not that she noticed such things in her rush to get to her cousin.

"Hey Kokin!"

*JINGLE*

"Huh?" Hakufu blinked, hearing an odd jingling noise. Looking down, she saw that she had kicked a coin and that the jingling noise had come from it hitting the stone sidewalk. Kneeling over, she picked up the coin thinking she just might have gotten an extra bit of spending money. When she got a good look at it though, she saw that it was too big to be a Yen coin and that it had a cold outer ring with a red centre decorated with a hawk on the front and a line on the back.

"Weird," Hakufu muttered, entranced by the pretty object.

"Hakufu! Come on!" Kokin called, snapping his cousin out of her trance.

"Oh, right!" the strawberry blonde gasped. Tucking the coin into her breast pocket, she dashed for her cousin. "Coming!"

As Hakufu ran, she didn't notice something crawling around a nearby tree. It was predominantly red with wing-like protrusions coming from its forearm armour. Its hand was scaled and had black nails not unlike what would be found on a bird. It wore rings on some of its fingers, but nothing gaudy or unnecessary. However, that was where the description ended for that was all the being crawling on the three was an arm.

"That's _mine_!" the angry arm spoke out.

* * *

**Seito**

Seito Private School was a rather pleasant place to go to school for most people. At the very least the Fighters there were able to keep the fighting down to a minimum while inside its boundaries. On the outside or during a crisis then all bets were off. It was also the base of two of the top fighters in all of Kanto, Chou-un Shiryuu and Kanu Unchou, both feared and respected for their skills in battle and for the high count of victories they earned.

At the moment the leader of Seito, Ryubi Gentoku, was busy at a desk in the library, enjoying the literature her school had to offer.

Ryubi was in fact a gentle girl, not at all like one would expect the leader of one of the most powerful schools to act like. She hated fighting and would have rather preferred to read a nice book instead of punching someone's lights out. She was of average height and had long brown hair which she kept tied into two ponytails which hung in front of her. She wore glasses over her sparkling blue eyes and it made her look very cute while her demeanour made her seem so vulnerable, which without her bodyguards, she usually was. However, she did manage to possess the largest pair of breasts in her entire school, which she never really seemed to care about but most of, if not all of the boys in her school did. She was somewhat of a figurehead while her bodyguards/best friends helped her keep things in check in Seito's territory.

Ryubi was alone in the library, which was something of a rarity for her since she almost always had one of her bodyguards with her. They were paranoid that since Ryubi wasn't much of a fighter, she'd be seen as an easy target by the other schools and such felt she had to be protected at all times. The only leeway she got was at school or at the shrine where they all lived, but that only brought a hair of leeway as it was.

Enjoying the works of foreign and domestic literature, she didn't notice silver coins with some odd blue ones spilling in an open window and flying through the air. The coins pooled together, not once hitting each other enough to make a sharp sound nor did they touch the wooden floor. Gently, they converged together to build into the form of the fish Greeed before solidifying and becoming the monster in question. She had formed inside one of the aisles of books and as such Ryubi did not notice her, but it was doubtful if she would notice the monster even if it appeared in front of her since she was so engrossed in the book in front of her.

"Hmmm," the fish Greeed hummed as she slowly and gently walked out from the aisles and slowly drew up upon the oblivious teenage girl from behind. When she was close enough, the female Greeed took a moment to ponder the teenage girl she was looking at, as if there were something special about her. Then, raising her arms, she slowly reached towards Ryubi with grasping fingers and…

*MOOSH! MOOSH!*

…groped her more than sizable assets.

"KYAAAAHHHH!" Ryubi screamed, completely caught off guard by the sudden groping. Squirming in her seat, she managed to get out of the Greeed's grip and scamper away from her unconventional attacker. Turning around with a clearly flushed face, the leader of Seito turned from embarrassed to downright terrified as her face paled. "AHHHHHHHHH!"

"Hmmm, my, my," the fish Greeed purred as she clenched her fingers and looked down at her own bound chest. "I did not know that humans could develop quite so…fully, like you have. Why, I think I might be jealous."

"Mwu…uh….wha…who…are you?" Ryubi squeaked in fear, reflexively covering her chest. Was this some kind of perverted demon like she heard about in some of the more horror-themes books she had seen in the past? If she weren't so terrified, she would have perhaps smiled at the thought that her books had some good after all in warning her about such things. She'd read it from cover to cover and knew exactly how to beat them.

"So polite too," the Greeed giggled. "I suppose I can answer. My name is Mezul. I am what you would call a Greeed. To answer your next question, I came here to see you."

"M-m-me?" Ryubi trembled, her legs shaking as Mezul began to step closer to her.

"Yes," Mezul nodded, reaching out and stroking a length of Ryuubi's hair. Her voice then turned soothing in a seductive sort of way. "Don't be afraid. I promise I won't hurt you. In fact, you'll enjoy what I have to do with you. All I need for you to do is chase after your desire."

"My…my desire?" Ryubi gulped. She wanted to run, but for some reason her legs just wouldn't allow it!

"Yes. Now, hold still," Mezul purred. Reaching to her shoulder, she stuck her fingers through her skin much like Gameru did before and produced one of the silver medals which made up her body. This one had an X on its back, but also had a shark carved on the opposite side. Bringing it up to the still terrified Ryubi, Mezul witnessed a coin slot appear on the leader's forehead. Giggling, she popped the coin inside and let the slot vanish. Ryubi immediately stiffened and her eyes went cross as a blue and black void appeared in her back which spat out what looked like a large egg sack of some kind of fish that stuck to the ceiling above one of the desks in the library.

"There, that wasn't so bad," Mezul giggled as Ryubi stood in her daze. "Now, enjoy your books. Make sure to read plenty. Ta-ta!" With a wave, Mezul's body collapsed into silver coins again before flying out the window. In her wake, Ryubi stiffly took a seat underneath the egg sack and immediately grabbed a nearby book someone had left behind and began to read it aggressively, racing down the printed lines and turning the pages with such force she threatened to tear the pages.

* * *

**Kyosho**

"BASICS! BASICS!"

Kyosho Academy was alive with the noises fists hitting wood near the back where most of the sports teams would practice. The spot in question was set up with several training dummies that the school kendo team would use when they trained, but in this case, it was being used by one of the Fighters who travelled the school's halls.

He was a tanned guy and heavily muscled. He wore a white shirt with khaki shorts and a white hat on his head. His hair was messy and brown, which matched the rest of his skin tone and he had a small goatee while on his ear hung one of the magatama. He was one of the trusted lieutenants of the leader of Kyosho, Kakoton Genjou. Out of the numerous Fighters, he was something of an oddball. He constantly preached about the foundation of the basics of fighting and always fought with only basic moves in his fights. Normally that might not be so dangerous to an experienced fighter, but Kakoton had an insane amount of strength in his limbs that he was able to call upon. He was living proof that as useful as advanced skills were, raw power counted for a lot in a fight.

"BASICS!" the tanned teen shouted, punching his training dummy before it shattered under the sheer force which he had used in the punch. As the wood bits and straw floated to the ground, he let off a sigh and brushed the sweat off of his head, looking solemn.

He'd been feeling sort of bad since the end of the Big Fighter's Tournament, an official tournament all of the schools participated in order to see who would be the next reigning champions to receive the Gyokuji and thus be the unofficial rulers. He had been on the team Kyosho fielded and they had managed to win the whole thing even with Rakuyo backing out and not even fighting. His distress stemmed from the fact that he had taken tips on how to beat one of Nanyo's fighters, Hakufu Sonsaku, down so easily from her own mother of all people.

Kakoton had met the flirty and hyperactive Goei when she returned his jacket the day after he had given it to Hakufu after they beat up some Fighters who thought they were tough and left the girl with a hole in her dress big enough to flash the world her goods if she wasn't careful. It was a nice gesture, but all of his friends began thinking that he liked older women and managed to snag a hottie. In truth, Kakoton was more interested in Hakufu, but with his friends asking for the story of how he snagged a MILF or worshipping the ground he walked on for doing so, no one believed him. It got worse when she came to all of Kyosho's fights in the tournament and cheered like a crazed fangirl, giving more substance to the rumours. The last straw came when Hakufu heard the rumours and started believing them, making him feel like he had blown any chance at her for good.

He wanted to find her and try to explain, but he was just too busy what with the power shift and taking Rakuyo under their wing and adding Kaku to the ranks of higher ups. Kakoton didn't trust the Rakuyo strategist and he doubted that she was being completely level with them about her intentions, not after she so blatantly challenged them to try and attack Rakuyo after they found out Rakuyo wasn't going to fight in the tournament. Kyosho was still trying to stabilize after that particular shift.

"Man, this bites," he sighed scratching his head.

"Wow, that was pretty cool," a new voice spoke up. "You don't see humans able to do that too often."

Eyes widening, Kakoton twisted to the source while taking a fighting stance, fearing that an assassin had come to Kyosho to try and off Sousou. However, even his battle experienced mind screeched to a halt when he saw some kind of cat man lounging on the wall surrounding the school. At first he thought it was someone in a costume, but that ended when he saw that the detail of the armour and how the face would move as it breathed.

"Just what the heck are you supposed to be?" Kakoton asked with a frown as he tensed up, ready to fight.

"Name's Cazali," the cat monster introduced as it hopped off the wall. Strolling lazily towards Kakoton, he continued speaking. "I'm what you would call a Greeed. And you are going to do something for me."

"Like hell I am," Kakoton frowned, gritting his teeth. He did not like the vibe that was coming off this thing and despite how lazy it was acting; he knew that it didn't have any kind of good intentions in store for him, or anyone else for that matter.

"Oh, you wanna fight then?" asked Cazali with a grin in his voice.

"Damn straight I do!" Kakoton bellowed, throwing a punch at the monster with all his muscle behind it. Normally that much force would allow him to break solid rock and really mess up a person and he was confident the monster wouldn't fare any better. Snorting, Cazali raised his hand with an open palm towards Kakoton and his incoming attack. The punch smashed into Cazali's hand, but rather than send the monster flying, the Greeed remained stationary as if he hadn't been hit at all.

"Wha-?"

"That stung a little. Now try mine," Cazalli laughed. Rearing his free hand back, he unleashed a punch which slammed into Kakoton's stomach, making the Fighter double over and even lift off the ground in the process. Breath completely driven from his lungs, he began to drop to his knees only for Cazali's bandaged knee to meet his face, knocking him onto his back with a loud thud that kicked up dust and bits of broken training dummy.

"UGH…" Kakoton gasped, his world a blur of colours and stars as he attempted to get his vision back. Pain rocketed through him like never before and it made moving very painful. Although it had never happened before, he had been taken down with just two blows

"Well, that was fun for all five seconds," Cazalli shrugged as he flicked his wrist and produced a silver coin. It looked almost exactly like the ones which made up his body, but it had the image of a panther etched onto its surface. Kneeling over the stunned Kakoton, Cazali watched a coin slot appear on the boy's head before he dropped the coin into place with ease. As soon as it vanished, Kakoton began to convulse and grunt as black and yellow vortexes appeared on his body, shooting bandages that wrapped around his arms, legs, and neck, making him look like he was in the hospital or coming out of an Egyptian tomb.

"Now then, go release your desire," Cazali laughed strolling away from the downed Fighter.

Grunting, the half mummified Kakoton got back to his feet, his eyes flashing with a yellow power. Clenching his fists, he stumbled over to one of the training dummies before punching it with all of his strength, obliterating it and scattering the remains feet away from where they started.

* * *

"**BASICS!**"

**Nanyo**

"Ooooooh. *gasp* Saji-samaaaaa. *Oh!* C-class is about *groan* about to…St-ART!"

"Well then, I'd better finish up. I do so hate to leave a woman hanging."

The pair of voices came from a secluded spot on Nanyo Academy's campus behind the equipment shed. Behind it and leaning against the wall were a pair of students. The first was a female with dark hair and a ponytail wearing the girls uniform. She had a simple ponytail and a magatama, but the colour indicated her as a low-class Fighter. Pressed up behind her with his hands softly fondling her chest beneath her top and being active underneath her skirt was a taller young man with dishwater blond hair which reached his shoulders and had a natural smirk on his face. His voice was suave and cool, indicating that this wasn't his first rendezvous with a young woman Normally one might have taken such a meeting inside the equipment shed, but if that had happened he would have tried going all the way and like his latest partner said, class was going to start soon.

Never let it be said that Saji Genpou didn't take his studies as seriously as he did the ladies.

"Oh! Oh! OH!"

"Oh, what is this I found," Saji smirked into his latest find's neck as he explored underneath her skirt. Applying just the _right _amount of pressure and…

"OOOOHHHHHH!" the girl moaned out, her hips trembling with her lower lips clenching fiercely. She gave off the cutest squeak as her body began to tremble, going through throes of ecstasy. Finally she stopped and instead leaned against him, panting softly.

"There you go," Saji smiled, pressing his lips to the girl's neck. "Hope you enjoyed that."

"Yes…oh yes…" the girl panted softly.

"Good then. Now, isn't it time for class for you?" he asked pointedly, but in a teasing manner. However, his hands did not leave their positions on her body despite what he was asking.

"*sigh* right," the girl groaned, reluctantly slipping Saji's hands away before taking the time to fix her top and clean off some of the moisture from her legs. Saji just watched her go about, not really bothering cleaning himself up just yet, preferring to simply watch the girl go. She made a brief goodbye before she headed out, her face still flushed. It just served to remind Saji of his skill with people, preferably the ladies.

Saji's real name was Shishi Ouin and he used to be a spy for Rakuyo. His strength brought him up to the perfect position of one of the Big Four of Nanyo Academy where he could report back to Totaku about what was going on. However, Saji had other plans and instead influenced fellow Big Four member Kannei into killing the former leader of Nanyo Enjutsu with his hypnotic skill. Sadly it drove the boy insane and Saji had to hypnotise the boy into believe Enjutsu was still alive and that he was giving Kannei orders. It served to allow Saji to rule Nanyo from the shadows. In a position of power, he made plans. Where Totaku was attempting to escape his fate, Saji manipulated events to ensure that fate caught up to him while he escaped his own. Totaku was killed, but the dead leader of Rakuyo managed to derail his plans and show him that the fate of the Fighters was not so easily shaken off. Saji had used and hurt a lot of people, executing his plan but his friends at Nanyo forgave him easily enough. Why they did, he wasn't so sure. Still, it felt good to have some true friends for a change instead of minions so he decided to enjoy it while it lasted for the fate of the Fighters may be fickle at times, but it was hardly peaceful.

"Well then," he smiled to himself, cleaning off his fingers on his pant leg. "Now that that the fun's over, I suppose I'd better head out too."

"Not before I get through with you."

Saji was immediately alert when he heard the male voice. Facing a male in a secluded place usually meant that someone wanted something from him. It didn't sound like Gakushu or Kokin so it was most likely someone who wanted a piece of him. All that was left to be determined was that if the voice was either an assassin of some sort or was an angry boyfriend of a girl he had a fling with in the past.

Hey, just because a girl claimed she was taken didn't mean that it wasn't impossible to get together with her to Saji. It just made it more challenging.

"Up here," the voice spoke from above.

Saji looked up in a flash, seeing a figure standing on the roof of the equipment shed. Saji was expecting an assassin or someone even remotely human-looking. Instead, what he got was a bug monster with mummified legs looking down on him.

"What the hell?" Saji gasped, actually losing his cool for a moment.

The bug monster snorted and leaped off of the equipment shed and landed on the ground, kicking dust off the ground. Its eyes were trained completely on Saji, not once breaking its gaze on him. Its posture and voice radiated nothing but ill intent and Saji was incredibly good at reading people. He knew that whatever the bug monster wanted with him, it was for nothing good. So, taking initiative, he lashed out with a kick at the monster. Saji may have been a womanizer, but he was a Fighter too and a damned good one since he was able to join the ranks of the Big Four. However, his kick might as well have been in slow motion as the monster reacted with amazing speed and caught the kick with its hand.

"Hmph! You actually thought a human like you can fight me? Uva of the Greeed?" asked the bug monster with a snort. "I don't know if you're brave or just stupid." Gripping Saji's leg, Uva actually lifted the womanizer off of the ground before slamming him into the side of the equipment shed with enough force to crack its walls. Even as Saji tried to get his bearings back, Uva lifted him up again before slamming him back down into the dirt, leaving an imprint of his body in its wake. Dropping Saji's leg, Uva grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and lifted him up before slamming him into the wall of the equipment shed once again, making it crack further.

"Now hold still!" Uva barked. Sinking his fingers into his own torso, Uva produced one of his silver coins, etched with the image of a bee on one side. Saji grimaced as he felt an opening appear in his head, a metal coin slot. Uva quickly brought the coin up to the slot and dropped it inside, prompting the slot to vanish. Letting Saji go, he watched as a green and black void opened up in his chest before it spat out what looked like a gray and white mummy with red discs attached to random points of his body and eyes which were composed of several slits.

Saji could only gape at what had come out of him despite feeling like a whole portion of him had suddenly vanished from his body. The mummy monster quickly stumbled up to its feet and looked over at Uva questioningly.

"After you feed enough to fully grow, find Ankh and find my Core Medals!" he snapped at the mummy. "Understand?"

"Hai," the mummy nodded before it began to lumber off for parts unknown. Uva just watched it go before likewise heading out of sight, his destination unclear. Saji was left in considerable pain, leaning against the equipment shed wall, trying to get his thoughts together.

* * *

**Meanwhile...**

Hakufu was admiring her new red coin, musing, "It'd make a nice pendant." There was something about the pattern on it. A red hawk with its wings spread represented power and freedom. She was so busy gazing at it, she was only paying minimal attention to where she was going and following Kokin. Never let it be said that despite her best efforts, Hakufu was something of a ditz and had the attention span of a kid when she wasn't in a fight. In short, anything and everything was able to steer her away from anything else.

As she was busy admiring her strange new coin, someone bumped into her and she accidentally dropped the coin. To her distress, it landed on its side and rolled along the ground before it vanished underneath a black vending machine filled with red and blue soda cans."Oh crap!" Dashing to the machine, she kneeled down and began trying to reach for the red coin. She just hoped that it didn't fall into a hidden storm drain or something. She'd never get it back in that case.

"Come on, come on," she whined, grasping underneath the machine as best she could, not quite noticing that she was flashing her panties at those who were passing by. Several teenage boys and older men took in the sight, several getting hit by their significant others for their wandering eyes. Still, Hakufu didn't quite notice or care since she was still trying to get her coin. "Please, please, I want it back!" Pressing her arm even further under the machine, she felt her fingers touch something made of steel. After a moment of grasping, she managed to drag it into her clutches and bring it back out, revealing the crimson face of the hawk coin. "All right!"

"Good. Now you can give it back to me."

Hakufu blinked and looked up to where she heard the voice talking to her. To her shock, the voice didn't come from a person, rather it came from a floating red arm that was just hovering in the air beside the vending machine.

"Aaahh!" she shouted and as a Fighter her reflexes often took control as she swung her arm, smacking the floating red arm into the side of the vending machine. The red limb gave off a grunt from the impact before sliding down the side of the machine.

"Ow…" the arm groaned, "That…hurt…"

Hakufu was off like a shot, wanting to put as much distance between herself and the freaky arm as she could. Barrelling through the streets, she caught up with her cousin in record time, "Kokin! Kokin! Kokin! Heeeeellllp!" she cried out, lunging at her relative.

"Huh?" the short-haired boy blinked as he turned to see what his cousin was freaking out about now. However, he didn't get to ask what the problem was before Hakufu's breasts plowed into his face and both cousins met the ground with a loud thud.

"Kokiiiiiiin! I'm being chased by a weird floating arm!" Hakufu cried. "It talked to me and it was trying to take away this cool red coin I found today! It was so creepy and I didn't know what to do and you've got to help meeeee!" She blubbered and cried, hugging Kokin close to her body.

"Mph! Mrph!" Kokin struggled beneath his cousin's grip. Normally he'd fantasized about being in a position like this, but his sense of right and wrong along with his sense of propriety dulled any kind of secret thrill he got over being this close to Hakufu's chest without any kind of backlash happening to him. Of course, it would be better if he was able to speak…and breathe.

"Kokin, why aren't you saying anything?" asked Hakufu, wanted an answer or some reassurance in the face of the scary floating arm she had just faced. Fighters good and bad she could handle, but floating limbs were just freaky!

"I assume it's because you are smothering him," A familiar voice spoke, making Hakufu pale. Looking over her shoulder, she felt her heart drop as she spotted the floating arm she'd been running from already very close and slowly drifting closer to her. "Now, hand over my Core Medal!"

A scream was heard but it was not Hakufu's. The arm was instantly alert as it senses something approaching, something that it didn't need to have hanging around and this moment in time.

"Yummy…" the arm growled, stiffening.

"I am not food!" Hakufu cried out, anime tears flying from her eyes. Kokin's struggles grew more intense as he was pressed further into Hakufu's sinful valley, but the thrills from his guilty side got all the greater because of it.

"I don't want to eat you, idiot! I want my-!" the arm began to rant.

Crashes and screams became more violent before the two Nanyo Fighters and the floating arm turned to see a car tossed down the street, followed by a strange bear monster. It was dumbly lumbering down the street, swatting aside anything that got in its way be it a piece of scenery or a person who was too slow. If the odd person was lucky, they just got swatted a fair distance before landing a few feet away with a sore body. The unlucky ones crashed into cars or buildings with a few more injuries, if they survived instead of making interesting red graffiti on some unlucky buildings.

"That's a Yummy," the arm announced.

The Bear Yummy stood at the end of the street that Hakufu, Kokin, and the floating arm were on before it suddenly stopped. Turning, it peered at the two teenagers, making Hakufu squeak in fright as it began to growl. The beast slowly began to approach the trio, and to the surprise of the two Fighters, began to talk!

"Ankh! Hand over the Core Medals!" it demanded loudly.

"Over my dead body!" the red arm, Ankh, denied sharply, clenching his fist.

"You don't even have a body to claim that for!" the Yummy snorted, its approach beginning to speed up. "But if you won't hand them over, I'll just take them!"

With a bellow, the Yummy began its charged with its arms raised for powerful slashes. At the same moment, Kokin's eyes sharpened as his Fighter instincts began to kick in. He considered himself an easygoing guy, but in a fight is when his true power came out, the colour of his magatama be damned! Quickly grabbing Hakufu's shoulders, he pried her off of him before he got up to stare down the approaching Yummy, "Hakufu, run!" he ordered, moving into a stance.

"Huh?" both Hakufu and the red arm spoke out in confusion.

"Go!" Kokin barked, beginning his own charge at the monster. It was his duty as a member of the Shu household and as the one who was channelling the original Kokin Shuyu to protect Hakufu at all costs. He had no doubt that this monster was a threat to her and he was going to do his damn hardest to make sure it never laid a hand on her!

"Get out of my way Human!" the Yummy snarled as Kokin charged closer.

Kokin didn't respond and he slipped into the long since memorised patterns of his fighting style. The Yummy bellowed and unleashed a powerful swipe which would have shredded the Shuyu boy if he allowed it to connect. Kokin wasn't one to willingly take a hit as he managed to dance around the strike, being much faster than the muscle-bound Yummy. Seeing his opportunity in the form of an avenue for attack, Kokin took it, unleashing a powerful combo into the monster's chest. The string of attacks went unblocked thanks to the monsters slow speed and as such Kokin managed to make every strike count, aiming to pulverise the monster's torso and make it reconsidering trying to attack with injured organs. Rearing back his fist for one such strike to where the kidneys would be, he heard the monster smirk.

"Pathetic."

*POW!*

Kokin's world was rocked as his jaw exploded with pain and his head twisted to the side from the force of the blow which struck the side of his face. He could feel blood pooling in his mouth from where he accidentally bit his cheek and it felt like his jaw bone had almost snapped from the impact. Quickly gaining back his bearings, he only managed to see the monster take another swipe at him before pain spread from his torso from the monster raking its claws across his body, tearing his short open and making blood shoot from the wounds, if only briefly.

"GAH!" the young man cried as the pain from the attack reach his brain.

"Kokin!" Hakufu screamed out.

"Poor fool," Ankh sighed.

Kokin's mind was a haze of pain as he tried to get himself back into the fight. He hadn't felt this badly hurt since Hakufu beat the crap out of him when she was possessed by her Haouryuu while she was fighting Ukitsu. Still, hadn't any of his attacks affected this monster at all? He had kept striking the torso areas which held the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, and other points. How he measured the force of his attacks should have transferred the force to the organs without the bones being much of a problem. Was there just more meat between his fists and the innards than he initially expected or…

"Your mind is wandering!" the Bear Yummy snapped before its clawed fist smashed into Kokin's stomach, making him double over with blood splattering from his mouth and onto the beast's limb. Already dizzy and adding oxygen deprivation to the mix, Kokin was unable to offer any serious resistance when the Yummy grabbed his head in his hands before…

*WHAM!*

…smashing it into the ground, cracking it from the force. Kokin stopped moving after that.

"KOKIN!" Hakufu screamed in horror.

"I'm surprised his head didn't pop like a melon after that," Ankh observed. "His body must be exceptionally tough…"

"Now that the annoyance is dealt with," the Bear Yummy growled, standing up again. "This is your last chance to give me the-!"

"RAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"

The Yummy never got to finish its sentence before Hakufu unleashed her fury and traveled the distance between Ankh and the Yummy and unleashed the strongest haymaker punch she could into the monster's face. While not a truly devastating punch, the force and the positioning of it did manage to cause the Yummy to stumble backwards with a grunt. After that, several more powerful punches rained down on the Yummy one right after the other. There was more force behind them than with Kokin, considering the difference between the two in terms of strength and the spirits in which both teens were channelling through their Magatama.

"YOU HURT KOKIN!" the enraged teenage girl screamed, rearing back her fist. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

She lashed out again, aiming at the Yummy's face, but her punch was caught in its hand, easily handling the force she had put behind it.

"Better than the boy, but still too weak to stop me," the Bear Yummy growled before it lifted Hakufu clear off the ground and threw her over its shoulder with ease. The strawberry blonde hit the ground with a thud and a groan. Sitting up, she gave her abused posterior a rub to numb the pain before she got up again. Seeing the Yummy turning to face her, she growled and charged once again.

Ankh clenched his fist. This human was definitely fairing better than her now incapacitated companion but even a human couldn't match a Yummy's power, unless they had help. Also, this human had one of his Core Medals. He couldn't risk losing it now that it was so close. It would appear that the disembodied Greeed arm would need to assist this human.

Hakufu was again sent flying through the air and was about to land hard on the ground when she felt something grab her by the front of the shirt. She blinked. It was that freaky arm again and it'd just saved her. Ankh gently lowered the Fighter onto her feet. "Don't take this personally, but you have something of mine and there's no way I'm letting you get killed by that thing until you return it."

"It…it hurt…Kokin…" Hakufu spoke, tears on her angered red face.

"So, you wish to avenge your friend," spoke Ankh. "Look, that thing is after me and in my condition I can't really fight it. So, you'll have to fight it for me." Hakufu clenched her fists. That was what she was planning to do to begin with. "However, as strong as you are, a human is still a human and can't beat a Yummy, unless…"

"Unless what?" demanded Hakufu. She would have strangled the arm at this point save for the fact that it didn't have a neck to strangle.

"Unless I lend a helping hand, pardon the pun," the arm replied. Floating up, there was a flash of light from its underside before a stone box dropped through its skin. Acting quickly, the arm flew down and caught the box, revealing it had three slots not unlike the kind used for coins on certain kinds of vending machines.

"What?" the Bear Yummy gasped, halting its battle mindset to gape at the box in Ankh's hand. "That…that was used in the sealing!"

"Why, yes it was," Ankh answered before he hovered closer to Hakufu. Pressing the stone box to her waist, the Fighter let out a surprised gasp when the stone shattered to reveal black and blue steel. From the left side, a metal strap wrapped around her waist, securing the item in place before a round disk with a gold edge and a void on one hold so to properly hold it appeared on her right side.

"What…what is this?" asked Hakufu, staring at the belt buckle.

"Something that will help you beat that thing," Ankh answered. "Do you still have my Core Medal? The red coin with the hawk on it."

"Uhhh, right here!" Hakufu nodded, drawing the red coin in question and holding it out in the palm of her hand.

"Good, but you're going to need two more," Ankh spoke. With a flick of his wrist, two more coloured coins appeared between his fingers. One was yellow in the middle and had the face of a tiger etched onto its surface while the other was green with a grasshopper marked on one side. Taking the coins, he slapped them into Hakufu's hand with the red coin. "Now, place the red Medal on the right, yellow in the middle, and green on the left. Hurry!"

"Don't do it!" the Bear Yummy warned, approaching as if it were afraid to get any closer to the belt than it needed to. "You'll seal your fate if you do!"

"Don't listen to him!" Ankh spoke, trying to be louder than the Yummy and thus keep Hakufu's attention. "Do you want to let that thing keep rampaging around and hurting people like it did your male companion? Do you want more people to feel the pain you're feeling right now?"

Hakufu's eyes turned dangerously narrow as her gaze lifted to the Bear Yummy, making it flinch as if it were afraid of her as much as it was the belt, "No." Stepping past Ankh, she slipped the coins into her belt, red, yellow, and green. As she slipped the Grasshopper Medal into its slot, the belt clicked and the buckle tilted into a slant. Ankh then moved into action and quickly grabbed the disk-like object from her side and slipped it into her hand.

"Use this," he ordered. "Swipe the front across the Medals in your belt. Do it and you'll get the power needed to destroy that Yummy. Now do it, henshin!"

"Right!" Hakufu nodded. Raising the O-Scanner, she brought the front down against her belt buckle before drawing it across the front. The belt made three chiming noises as the scanner went across them and produced three rings of red, yellow, and green as the scanner passed.

"Henshin!" she cried out.

"**TAKA!**"

"**TORA!**"

"**BATTA!**"

"**TA-TO-BA TATOBA TA-TO-BA!**"

Colored medals dance around her. The first ring of colored medals spun around her head in a vertical fashion, the second ring spun around his torso in a horizontal fashion and the third surrounded his legs in the same horizontal fashion as the previous set. Huge projections of the three Core Medals in the belt appeared before her, aligning vertically with the red hawk at the top, yellow tiger in the middle and green grasshopper at the bottom before the three of them slammed together to make a new Medal that slammed into her.

Hakufu's entire body became covered in a black bodysuit and armour. In the centre of her chest was a large round circle with three designs on it. Squeezed at the bottom was the image of a green grasshopper. In the centre and taking up most of the space was a yellow tiger and finally with barely any room at the top was a red hawk. Her legs were covered with thin green armour at the front which was segmented not unlike a grasshopper's legs. Connected to the armour were green lines which connected to the grasshopper marking on her chest. Yellow lines extended from the tiger marking, past the rounded shoulders with yellow edges and ended at yellow gauntlets which had sharp blades folded back on the wrists. Finally the hawk symbol left a red line leading up to her face which was now concealed under a helmet that had large green eyes and a face plate which looked like a flying bird.

"Did I just hear singing? Hawk (taka), tiger (tora), grasshopper (batta)? Is that what this is?"

"Worry about that some other time," said Ankh. "This thing is called OOO (pronounced as Ozu). You'll realise its power once you fight with it."

The Bear Yummy roared and lunged at OOO. The armoured Fighter cried out and raised her arms to defend. The Bear Yummy's claws scraped against her yellow gauntlets but otherwise did little damage. She then kicked the Yummy in the midsection, sending it staggering back. Encouraged by how she was actually hurting it, OOO pressed her advantage, going for more attacks. As she charged, the tiger emblem on her chest flashed before the claws on the back of her gauntlets folded out and with a swing she slashed the monster across the chest. She expected to see blood but instead silver coins splashed out of the monster's chest where she struck. The wound was open for only a moment before gray energy sealed it shut again, but it was more than enough to tell her she could win!

Deciding to find out more once the monster was dealt with, OOO attacked with several more slashes. Each strike opened more wounds with more silver coins spilling out and making jingling noises on the ground. As if responding to her growing confidence, the grasshopper emblem on her chest flashed before her green leg armour began to glow while her yellow claws retracted. Leaping to cross the distance between herself and the monster, OOO unleashed bicycle kicks which crashed against the Yummy, making it stumble and forcing more coins out of its remaining wounds before they had a chance to close.

"Guess she's not such a pushover," said Ankh. To be fair, he could've chosen anyone to be OOO but an experienced Fighter seemed like the best choice. Even a weakling could become a powerhouse by using OOO but OOO's true potential could only be brought up by a true warrior.

Growling, the Bear Yummy wasn't going to take the abuse much longer. Looking at OOO, it roared and charged at the armoured girl, unleashing several slashes which sparked across her chest before punching her in the abdomen and sending her sprawling across the ground. Strangely enough, her yellow sections began to spark and lose their colour from the numerous impacts, not that she noticed since her world had been momentarily rocked by the hits.

"Wow, Mom's got nothing on this guy," she grunted, rubbing her chest so to try and massage the pain out. "It's a good thing this armour's so good too. Otherwise my clothes would have been shredded and Mom said she was going to pound me for ruining another outfit."

"Forget about your clothes!" Ankh shouted, flying closer to OOO. Flicking his wrist, he produced a second green coin, this one with a praying mantis etched on the front. "Here. Switch this one with the Tora Medal. You'll need a better weapon than the ones you have with you now."

"Okay!" OOO nodded, grabbing the Medal. Pushing on her buckle, she set it into a horizontal position again before removing the Tora Medal and slipping the Kamakiri Medal into its place. With the Medal secured, the buckle shifted again before OOO took her scanner and swiped it across the front.

"**TAKA!**"

"**KAMAKIRI!**"

"**BATTA!**"

Images of the three Core Medals appeared in front of OOO before merging together and colliding with her chest. In a haze of green, the tiger sections of her armour were replaced with a bright green set with a mantis symbol replacing the tiger one on her chest. Another modification was that her gauntlets were now green with black accents and had long blades extending from them and were able to reach up to her elbows. As she raised her arms, the blades attached to the gauntlets suddenly found themselves in her hands, held in a reverse grip.

"Ankh, hand over those Core Medals!" the Bear Yummy demanded as it charged but OOO would not let it reach its target. Swinging her arms, she slashed at the Yummy with the Kamakiri Swords, causing coins to fly out of it. She then kicked the Yummy hard with both feet, sending it skidding across the ground. Charging forward, she leapt and soared through the air. The mantis emblem on her chest glowed, transferring power into her arms and swords.

"Take this! Kamakiri Slash!" OOO called out as she slashed the Yummy in an X-pattern with her swords, cutting clean through the Yummy and making a green X-shaped cut appear on its body. The Bear Yummy roared before exploding. From the flames, many coins burst out and rained down on OOO, bouncing off her suit and rolling across the ground. "So, that guy was made of coins?" In the midst of her surprise, she then realised something. "Kokin!" She ran towards her cousin, "Kokin, hold on! I'll call for help!"

* * *

**Meanwhile…**

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you," Kougami smiled as he put the finishing touches on yet another cake. "Happy Birthday, Dear OOO…"

* * *

**With Hakufu…**

As OOO panicked about, trying to spot where a phone was so she could try and get some help for her relative, Ankh began to hover down and examine the boy. Really, the amount of punishment he took from the Yummy was considerable and yet somehow he still survived it all. From where the bird Greeed was standing, the boy should have died when he was smashed into the ground so savagely, but he survived just the same, if only barely. To have survived such a blow meant that the boy's body was exceptionally tough for a human.

"I think you'll do just fine," Ankh spoke to himself.

Hovering down, his 'body' began to glow before phasing over Kokin's right arm. The glow then extended over the Fighter's whole body before Ankh lifted himself and the unconscious human from the ground. The body of Kokin then flashed as if life suddenly poured into him before settling on his feet. However, there was a slight difference to how it was before. Kokin's hair was usually a dark colour usually associated with blue, but now it had turned blonde and styled with sizable spikes at the front, leaving the sides shorter than usual. The last glaring difference was the magatama on his ear had changed colour from its usual white to a ruby red.

"A phone, I need to find a phone!" OOO panicked as she searched for a means of getting help for her cousin. As she panicked, she turned and spotted what appeared to be Kokin standing up with a new hairstyle and a freaky red glove on his arm. "Kokin! You're okay!" she squealed as she charged to glomp what appeared to be her cousin.

The one wearing Kokin's face raised his kaijin arm and held it up, stopping OOO from her affectionate attack, "Okay? Girl, your friend is very much not okay. However, my presence will be able to keep him alive."

"Huh?" OOO blinked.

"Now then, allow me to introduce myself," the possessed young man grinned. With a dramatic bow, he spoke. "My name is Ankh. I am one of the beings known as the Greeed."

"Greeed?" OOO repeated in confusion.

To Be Continued…

A/N: My thanks to Kamen Rider Chrome for editing and offering ideas as this chapter was made. Credit for this idea goes to Tailsmo4ever though since it was his initial suggestion that got the ball rolling for this chapter to take form.


	10. FateIngens Cor

I do not own Harry Potter or Fate/Stay Night. They belong to their respective creators and not me. I am not writing this for any kind of profit and am merely writing for fun so no one get the funny idea to sue me out of this.

Fate/Ingens Cor

By Ten-Faced Paladin

Chapter 1: Here There be Heroes

**Malfoy Manor**

The Dark Lord, known as Voldemort (born as Tom Riddle) was not famous for his patience. He was famous for his intelligence, his power, his ingenuity, his ideals, his tactics, and most of all his cruelty. Out of these traits and more, patience was not one of them. He was a man of grand ambition along with the desire and the power to see his mission through to the end. Still, his impatience stemmed from his minions who time after time seemed completely incapable of doing anything beyond, murder, maim, and kill. Anything higher than that seemed to be beyond their petty reasoning. Still, they had powerful magic and they were Purebloods. Mix both those qualifications in with loyal and that was good enough for him. Still, if he needed anything of any true magic to be done, Voldemort was often of the mindset of 'if you want something done right, do it yourself'. Such was the case for the events he was seeing to in his current lodgings.

His current lodgings were in fact the main ballroom of Malfoy Manor. It had been converted into a throne room of sorts with a connecting master chambers for his personal use for anything deem fit. Nothing but the best was given to him be it food, drink, materials, or the most loyal of house elves. Lucius may have been a snivelling backstabber when the tides turned, but never let it be said he held fast to his true loyalties and made sure proper respect was paid. Voldemort had currently banished all of the furniture from his throne room, leaving nothing but a few candles in the air to illuminate everything. His inner circle of Death Eaters were all in attendance, assisting him where they could. He didn't dare trust them with any of the more important aspects of what he was about to do. That one iota of faith went to the one man who was looking through a very thick tome and marking on the floor the circles which would be needed.

Lars Von Einzbern was a new recruit into the ranks of the Death Eaters. He was of typical German stock with blonde hair and blue eyes, making him seem rather unremarkable in all senses of the word. He was a bastard son from the Einzbern Family, a highly respectable family of magic users from Germany. He was accepted by the family, but in name only. He had to work, scrounge, and beg for any and all teachings in magical arts until the head of the family had enough of him and sent him to the Mage's Association school Clock Tower so to get a proper education and see if he wasn't such a stain on the Einzbern name. If anything, Lars flourished under formal teaching and proved he had the Einzbern blood within him, even if it was mixed with some common female mage which his father picked up in The Leaky Cauldron one night.

Recruiting Lars had been simple enough. The Einzberns already believed that being magical made them superior stock in bloodlines, even if they weren't the type to follow Voldemort's regime. However, as much as Lars believed being magical made one superior, he also believed that power made one supreme. Power was what he wanted and he wasn't getting it through the means of the Mages Association and as such, sought out the Death Eaters and quickly joined their ranks.

Truth be told, a small portion of Voldemort which the man refused to admit had existed had a soft spot for the mage. They had similar beginnings, being cast off and unwanted children of nobles, both getting in touch with the prestigious bloodlines and finding the normal system of gaining control of it lacking in their goals. Still, Voldemort admitted that Lars knew his magic and proved very willing for the cause, which helped him quickly rise through the ranks, even if he was not in the Inner Circle just yet, although, should Lars' plan work, that would quickly change.

Lars had come straight to Voldemort one day with a very potent plan. Long ago, the Einzberns, Tohsakas, and Makiris, all prominent magical families in other countries had discovered the means to tap into a powerful source of magic. However, while they discovered it, tapping into it required a complex ritual. It would take seven magic-users in total to help accomplish it and that was simply the ritual itself, never mind the process need to create a bond with the source of power in the first place. The power was connected to Akasha, otherwise the Root of all Worlds, a supremely powerful place where all existence sprung from. While most magical society took it as religious gospel and nothing more, the Mages' Association constantly researched ways to try and find it, even going so far as to mix magic with muggle technology, 'modernising' themselves and making them all more or less ostracized from magical society.

Lars' plan was to emulate what his ancestors along with the Tohsakas and the Makiris had done reconnect the bond to that source of power and begin the Heaven's Feel here in England. His plan didn't stop there though. Through his own research both through the Mages' Association and the large libraries which many of his Death Eaters possessed, Lars was convinced he could force the prize of the Heaven's Feel to be summoned. After that it would only need to be charged before Voldemort could use it to grant a single wish for himself. A wish for anything in existence, no strings attached.

What Lars offered Voldemort was nothing less that the Holy Grail itself.

The plan was quite bold and much could go wrong. Even Voldemort knew that one didn't just call something like the Holy Grail down and force it to submit. Lars' approach was to trick the Grail into believing that a Heaven's Feel was already completed and that it was time for it to come down. Doing that though would be difficult. The Holy Grail War in Japan was a trying event and hard to even be considered for since the Grail was the one who selected the other competitors and had an eye on the proceedings. The Japanese already had a record for their wars being brutal and destructive while the Americans in their own attempts to hail down the Grail met with a mockery of a competition that not many felt they could take seriously after hearing of the War in Japan.

"My patience is not endless Von Einzbern," Voldemort hissed, eyeing the German work. "Is everything ready yet?"

"Just a last few checks before we begin," Lars answered. "I do not want to leave anything to chance."

Voldemort narrowed his eyes, but admitted that for something this important, Lars' precautions were valid. The blonde German searched over the runes and arrays which were drawn into the floor of the Dark Lord's impromptu throne room. Everything was found to be in order for Lars' liking and he quickly positioned everyone in their roles in the upcoming ritual. If it all worked, then Voldemort would be able to achieve his goals in a literal heartbeat and no blasted prophecy would be able to stop him!

The Death Eaters and Voldemort himself placed themselves in a circle around the array. Not many of them were well-versed in wandless magic outside of potions, but they were quickly finding the will to do so lest they fail the ritual and ruin everything. The array in the centre of the circle of magicals began to glow as they pooled their energy into it, Voldemort putting the most in obviously being the most powerful and the Grail was meant to go to him. The array began to glow brighter and brighter, making expectations and hopes rise. As the glow began to become brighter, a sphere of power began to manifest above it.

"Yesssss!" Voldemort grinned, greed tinting his eyes as he stared at the orb. Soon ultimate power would belong to him!

"Here it comes," Lars whispered, almost unbelieving that he had planned everything leading to this moment.

The orb above the circle continued to grow as more power was funnelled into the array. All of the Death Eaters in attendance could tell that what they were hoping for was going to happen soon. Their greed for power and lust for what they arrogantly assumed to be theirs would soon become a reality. It would be theirs!

BOOOM!

The orb then exploded, sending a backlash of power in all directions as well as everyone in the room. Death Eaters hit the walls, making sickening slamming noises. The room was illuminated to the point where everything was white as opposed to the usual dreary black. Even Voldemort was not spared as he collapsed on the marble floor, his right hand filled with an incredible burning sensation, making him fear that he had broken his wrist, the adrenaline of his situation probably numbing the pain for the moment.

As the light died down, all of the Death Eaters were groaning in pain from the sudden explosion. However, a lot of them were sharing the same thoughts of making Lars pay for his incompetence. Getting up, they all took a mental tally of their limbs and finding them intact. However, there was one of their number that was still stuck to the walls.

"Yaxley!" Macnair cried, bringing attention to the Ministry's executioner…and who was above him. Stuck to the wall next to the Malfoy coat of arms and impaled on a battle axe was Yaxley, one of Voldemort's trusted followers and a member of the Inner Circle. There was no hope for him since he was already dead. The spear-tip of the battle axe went straight through his heart, killing him instantly. The blast had dislodged the weapon, but one of its mounting hooks kept it in place, making it stick out and make it easy to be cut with.

"VON EINZBERN!" Voldemort bellowed. Yaxley was one of the most loyal and probably still competent members of his circle after his return to the world of the living. Replacing someone of his magical ability would be difficult, if not impossible thanks to the slim pickings among the wizards whom believed in his mission being petty criminals or too cowardly to try and join him with the likes of Dumbledore still attempting to meddle with him. Now Lars was going to pay the price. Gripping his wand, Voldemort pointed it at the petrified blonde. "_Cru-!_"

"Are you my Master?"

Voldemort's rage sputtered as he turned to see that someone new was in the room, kneeling in the blackened circle of the failed ritual. He was donned in black armour which might have been common in the era of the Crusades or some similar place in history, but it was jagged and looked like it was supposed to spark fear in all who gazed at him. He wore tattered bright red cloak which was held on with a gold brooch shaped like talons Black hair trailed down to his shoulders and his face was set in a perpetual scowl along a square jaw and a well-trimmed beard. He may have been called handsome at one point in his life, but his face reflected much hostility and the horrors of war. All of that war and aggression in his eyes was pointed at Voldemort, but he seemed unable to unleash it.

"Upon your summoning, I have come," he growled out. "I ask again, are you my Master?"

"Oh bloody hell," Lars gasped out.

"Von Einzbern, you have ten seconds to tell me what the meaning of this is," Voldemort growled out in an almost animalistic manner.

Lars gulped, his eyes not leaving the kneeling knight in the middle of the room, "He…he is a Servant. He's one of the seven who are called to participate in the Grail War." He gulped a second time. He glanced over at Voldemort. "Master, check your hands. If you are the one who summoned him, then you will have some kind of marking on your hand which holds the Command Mantras."

Swallowing his anger at the moment, Voldemort looked to his hands and quickly found a glowing marking on the back of his right hand. It was glowing red in the darkness of the reception hall. It was styled to look like a devilish spear with two prongs next to it, but kept separate from the main sigil. It rather suited Voldemort's dark style, but he didn't have a complete idea of what it meant.

"And this means?" the Dark Lord asked impatiently.

"Our ritual succeeded in connecting to the Holy Grail, but not in fooling it," Lars grunted as he managed to get back up to his feet, marvelling at the kneeling knight. "If this Servant has appeared and the markings given to you, it seems that what we succeeded in doing was triggering a Holy Grail War here in England."

Voldemort frowned, glaring at the marks on his hand before staring at the kneeling knight, who seemed to be growing more agitated. Voldemort had to admit that this plan wasn't a total loss. His Servant if what Lars said was true was a legendary hero from the past. Likely a muggle save for one of the classes which Servants were in, but at least a powerful muggle. Between his might and Voldemort's magic, what could any other Servant and wizard team have compared to him?

Beginning to grin, Voldemort stepped forward so he stood in front of the still-kneeling Servant. Looking him in the eye, he spoke, "Servant, I am your Master."

The words seemed to bring a severe reaction to the kneeling knight. He reared back and bellowed loudly, giving off a pulse of power. Voldemort quickly stepped back so to not get caught by whatever the devil was happening to the knight. The pulse of power rose into a pillar as did the knight's bellows. To the shock of the Death Eaters the knight's armour turned blood red while his skin turned pale and his hair shifted to a white colour. His teeth became clenched, revealing that the incisors had grown.

"Einzbern!" Voldemort shouted, demanding answers.

Lars was quick to try and get a read on the situation. He dared to get closer to the bellowing knight, trying to get a better look at him. As he did, the knight turned towards him and snarled, revealing blood red eyes which were narrowed and filled with endless anger and rage. No sense of sentient thought was present, only the urge to destroy and kill.

"Mad Enhancement," Lars spoke softly, backing away from the knight slowly. "You…You have summoned Berserker my lord."

"Berserker," Voldemort commented, testing the word. He had recalled the name during his own readings into the Holy Grail War and those who would take part. Berserker was one of the seven classes of Servant if he recalled. "A mindless rampaging beast whom only answers orders and does not grow tired or weak."

"That…that would be correct," Lars nodded, trying to back away slowly so Berserker would not be inclined to attack him.

"Excellent!" the Dark Lord grinned maliciously, a happy sneer to contrast Berserker's insane scowl.

* * *

**Little Whinging, Surrey**

Inside the rather plain streets of Little Whinging, there lived a seemingly plain boy. He was fifteen years old and lived at number 4 Privet Drive. He had shaggy black hair which never seemed tameable no matter how much any hairdresser tried. A pair of glasses adorned his jade green eyes which made him appear a little more frail than he was. His most distinguishable trait was the odd lightning-shaped scar on his forehead. He was thin of frame and was forced to wear baggy clothes. To the residents of Privet Drive, Harry Potter was just a face which had been sent to some private school for criminal boys according to his relatives and was thus ignored for the most part.

In truth, Harry Potter was a wizard.

He didn't know this immediately of course. For the first eleven years of his life, as far as he knew his parents died in a car accident which landed him with his relatives the Durselys, related through his aunt Petunia and his mother. For those eleven years, Harry had to play the eternal chore boy for his relatives. His Aunt Petunia was a skinny stick of a woman who was an incurable gossip who had the audacity to spy on her neighbours so she could have some dirt to spill about them. When she wasn't busy calling Harry 'worthless' or the like, she was taking credit over her prize-winning flower garden which she never laid a linger on and instead had Harry do all the work. Her husband Vernon was a walrus of a man with a bristly mousetache who was more than happy to lock up Harry whenever he could so he wouldn't ruin the 'normal' image of his family which he prided himself so much on at his drill bit manufacturing plant, Grunnings. Whenever Harry seemed to step out of line, be it truly or because someone said so, Vernon would lay down the law with a heavy hand. Lastly was Harry's cousin Dudley who was an absolutely spoiled whale of a boy whom was given everything he ever wanted and then some. Overfed and given everything, Dudley ruled the primary school system with Harry being the prime target. Many a times Harry came home with bruises and cuts due to Dudley and his gang and not having an ounce of justice since his aunt and uncle denied anything but perfection no matter how rotten spoiled, whiney, or violent Dudley got even with 'many' other parents complaining

Harry's life of working like a dog for the Dursely's and their neglect of him save for the bare essentials continued for eleven years until one day he received a very odd letter from a school called Hogwarts. After Petunia and Vernon tried everything in their power to prevent Harry from even touching letter after letter, Harry finally discovered the truth. He was a wizard, much like his mother and father were. The Dursleys in their usual fits of hatred for anything they considered 'abnormal' saw fit to try and prevent Harry from learning of anything magical and eventually forcing the magic out of him so he'd be 'normal' like them. Much to their frustration, they failed miserably.

For the past four years, Harry had been learning all about magic at the school of Hogwarts. However, it wasn't at all the sweetest dream that he envisioned with being able to get away from the Dursleys. First of all, Harry just wasn't an ordinary wizard but one of the most famous. His celebrity status stemmed from how as a child, he managed to survive being his by a killing curse cast by one of the worst dark wizards of all time, Voldemort (A.K.A. You-Know-Who) which backlashed and destroyed the man in the process. With his status came all sorts of expectations people seemed to hold on him being some kind of powerful wizard in the making or having been personally trained by some of the most powerful wizards of the day. Despite seeing the boy in person, people still seemed to expect great things from him.

Despite all the friends Harry made at school and all of the interesting things he had learned at Hogwarts, it was anything but a relaxing school experience. For the past four years Harry's life was put at risk in various insane situations. The first year, he and his friends Ron and Hermione had to protect the Sorcerer's Stone from Voldemort who had managed to remain as a kind of spirit of some sort. His second year had Harry fight a Basilisk which was prowling the school and attacking muggleborn students at the direction of a student possessed by Voldemort's childhood diary. Third year saw the escape of Sirius Black and the dementors from the wizard prison Azkaban which proved more dangerous than the wrongly accused convict. Finally, last year saw the return of the Triwizard Tournament which had been discontinued since participant fatalities became too much. In Harry's opinion, the people in charge hadn't made it much safer than they claimed they had.

During the final event of the tournament though, Harry was transported into a cemetery and used in a ritual which completely revived Voldemort into his physical form. Defeating the man in a wizarding duel and escaping, Harry tried to warn everyone, but not many took him seriously. Everyone else seemed content to stick their heads into the dirt and refuse to believe that Voldemort had returned. He really couldn't blame them, having met the man in person and witnessed his cruelty he wouldn't want to believe the dark wizard had returned either.

Since returning to his personal isolation with the Dursleys though, Harry had been in a communication blackout. No one had been sending him letters and it was not helping his growing temper. Between the denial of Fudge, the Minister of Magic and seeing no sign of anything being done to stop the madman nor hearing anything from his friends, Harry was finding himself being pushed in ways he did not have the patience for. Furthermore, his patience was being further grated with his cousin Dudley. The formerly whale-shaped boy had discovered wrestling and managed to turn the majority of his body fat into muscle. What got on Harry's nerves was the fact that his aunt and uncle were acting like Dudley was the prince of Britain. It didn't help the boy's arrogance when he managed to fight and pin a boy that was older than him.

Nowadays Dudley and his gang would roam about doing delinquent things and cause trouble. Unlike when they were younger, they had enough sense not to cause trouble and get caught for it. Of course, Dudley always had a ready excuse as to why he was late, citing that he was hanging out at a friend's place having afternoon and evening tea like a proper English gentleman. As usual with their absolute denial of Dudley doing anything wrong, Vernon and Petunia swallowed his lies hook, line, and Sinker.

At this point in time, Harry was sitting in one of the small parks near his house thinking about what was going on over and over again. He usually wasn't able to go there since the Dursleys had him working on chores more often than not. When he could go no one would play with him since they were afraid Dudley and his gang would beat them up in their usual Harry Hunting trips where anyone who got in the way was the target. This night, it was one of the sole sanctuaries he had as the sun sank over the horizon. His frustration was mounting with his complete isolation with people who were more or less the definition of anti-magic and made it a point to show how much they hated him when they weren't ignoring him to live as 'normally' as they possibly could.

The voices of young men alerted him of something approaching from the distance. He easily recognized the voices as belonging to Dudley and his gang of idiots. It sounded like they were returning to their homes for the night after causing somebody some trouble once again. Harry knew that once Dudley saw him, he'd decide that some picking on Harry would be the perfect day to wrap up the evening. With his temper growling and seeking release, Harry decided some scare tactics were in order so to get some payback.

After all, it wasn't as if he was going to actually cast a spell.

* * *

**Granger Residence**

Hermione Granger was a girl who loved books and learning. Growing up, she read constantly and proved herself very intelligent. However, it didn't make her any friends during her primary school years. Teased because of her bushy hair, large front teeth, and being a 'teacher's pet' she grew to be rather lonely. When she received her Hogwarts letter and an explanation from Professor McGonagall, she had thought that things were finally looking up. A bit of her ideas about wizards painted them as people who liked to learn and researched into discovering new ways of magic and how to do things better. However, the reality shattered those preconceptions when she found herself to be just as ridiculed about actually liking to learn as she was in primary school. It seemed like no matter where she went she would be remain just as friendless as ever simply because she liked to do well in school rather than do the other things children her age liked to do.

Then Halloween in her first year occurred and she made her first friends.

Being rescued from a mountain troll would do that for a person. Meeting Harry Potter and Ron Weasley finally gave her the friends she so badly wanted. There were ups and downs of course, but everyday she was glad at one point or another that she had met them. She could do without the life-risking adventures, but in the end she would have gone through them anyway. Her bond with her friends simply was that strong.

Nowadays Hermione was more than a little frustrated. At the end of her fourth year the Dark Lord Voldemort had returned and as far as she could tell from her subscription to the Daily Prophet, the Ministry was denying it with all of their strength and going so far as to create a smear campaign against Harry so that no one would listen to him should he ever try to go public. It incensed her that the government which was supposed to support the people and warn them of dangers was reacting like little children who didn't want to admit that something they didn't like had happened. Then again, Cornelius Fudge wasn't the most honest of individuals in her opinion and his close relationship with Lucius Malfoy made her think that more than a few 'donations' had helped influence decisions in his term as Minister for Magic.

She wanted to talk to Harry about it and see what he thought of it, and maybe help soothe his temper but Professor Dumbledore had been quite adamant about not communicating with Harry at all, 'for his own protection' just in case someone followed the owls. Hermione truly respected Dumbledore and everything he had done, but she had to question why completely cutting Harry off from communication with his friends was supposed to be helpful. At the very least, letting him know that owls may be traced so messages would be rare or arranging a more secure means of communication would have been a better idea. She had heard stories about Harry's relatives and she refused to believe that Harry was as safe as Dumbledore believed, emotionally at least.

Again, there wasn't much she could do about it since she didn't know how to make a floo or some of the other more secure communications and even if she did, she wasn't allowed to use magic outside of school yet so she was stuck in that regard. So instead she buried herself into more magical research to learn more about the magical world. It was during this time that she had discovered the Mage's Association and their own school known as Clock Tower. It was surprising for her to learn that there was another school for wizards, or rather mages, in Britain and she wondered why she hadn't been invited. However, that's when she discovered that while Hogwarts was considered one of the finest schools, it catered to everyone while Clock Tower seemed more like a true private school and only made offers to certain families or those with sufficient experience. Furthermore, the Mage's Association and Magical Britain really didn't like each other all that much. The Mage's Association considered Magic Britain to be backwards and ignorant of the world at large and likely to not be amounting to anything since they continued to wallow in their own ignorance. Magical Britain on the other hand considered the Mage's Association to be borderline heretics who refuse to follow the teachings of Merlin and broach subjects which wizards have no business dealing with, such as associating with the modern muggle world.

It had taken Hermione some time at Flourish and Blotts to discover that much about the Mage's Association since any and all books about them were crammed into a dusty corner and it took her more time to sort out the unbiased books about them. A stroke of luck however found her one of the texts which students of Clock Tower would learn from and she immediately set into it. The kinds of magic she learned of was quite interesting and very radical compared to the things she learned at Hogwarts. However, Hermione never considered knowledge a bad thing unless it was used for a bad purpose so she strove on. One aspect of the Mage's Association she found incredibly interesting was their use of familiars and summoning arrays to call for them.

That was currently what the bushy-haired young woman was doing in her basement on such a pleasant evening. She was currently drawing an ornate circle on the concrete floor with a number of geometric designs. It was very precise work and she could see why the Mage's Association embraced the modern area with their precision tools and such things. It made drawing her array ever so much easier. She had found a number of possible arrays to summon familiars with, but one in particular had caught her attention. It was supposedly one associated with what the Mage's Association said was connected to what they called the Third True Magic, a powerful kind of magic which modern science had yet been able to duplicate. The book said that it only worked under specific circumstances but didn't go into what those where. Still, eager to at least try, she set to work and created the array out of chalk and several precision instruments bought from an office supply store.

"Okay, that should do it," Hermione muttered to herself, checking her measurements and the diagrams in the book to be sure. "Now comes the tricky part."

She knew she could get in loads of trouble for doing this, but since she wasn't using her wand then there was a chance that the Ministry wouldn't be able to track it. She had read up on how the Ministry made sure that underage students didn't use their magic by keeping trackers on their wands which expired once they reached their age of majority. She had researched such things after Harry told her about how he was accused of underage magic when Dobby used magic in his relatives' house and found that the method used on Harry was considered overkill compared to the ministry standard. She had assumed that it was because Harry was The-Boy-Who-Lived and thus had to be under more protection than regular students.

Placing herself in front of the circle, Hermione began reading from the book the chant which was marked alongside the circle she had chosen. The words were slightly blurred, but she managed to make them out so to cast the spell properly. The spell was much longer to invoke than the ones she was used to, showing that while Hogwarts went for speed, the Mage's Association seemed to lean towards the results and power instead. Word after word, the circle began to glow brighter and brighter.

"Servant…" she spoke out, finishing the incantation. "Come forth!"

The array triggered, bringing a flash of light which lit up the room as if a star had appeared, forcing Hermione to shield her eyes. Stumbling back from the light, she tripped and fell onto her bottom as she covered her eyes. While she struggled with her sight, the centre of the circle reacted as a figure seemed to rise out of the ground as if it were as dense as air. As the figure rose out of the ground like sprouting plant, the circle stopped glowing and all of the chalk lines vanished, having been swept away by the force.

Blinking her eyes, Hermione looked to her summoning array and gasped when she found it missing, but a man standing in its place. He was of average build, but seemed thing and light on his feet. He was dressed in a green tunic and dark brown pants with leather boots. His right hand was covered in a fingerless green glove while the other was wrapped in white bandages, as if it were used it a singular action over and over again and thus had to be protected from harm. Lastly his shoulders were adorned with a dark green cloak. His face was admittedly handsome and seemed to have an easy smile on it with hazel eyes, one of which was slightly obscured by his hair. Said hair was red, but shaggy like the wind had brushed through it. All in all, Hermione seemed almost smitten at the handsome man which had appeared before her.

"Are you my Master?" he asked plainly.

"Uh…wh…what?" the bushy-haired girl gasped out.

"Upon your summoning, I have come forth," the man replied. "Are you my Master?"

Hermione blinked and tried to get her mind back into order. Quickly coming to terms with what this handsome man was saying, she answered, "Y-yes. I am the one who summoned you. Although you weren't quite what I was expecting…."

"Eh, work with what you've got," The man shrugged. "You can call me Archer. Who might you be?"

"Hermione Granger," the young woman answered as she got to her feet, brushing off her pants. "Archer? Is that really your name?"

"My Class actually," Archer replied. "It's safer that you refer to me that way. Wouldn't want your opponents to learn about my name and abilities."

That brought Hermione up short, "My opponents?"

"The other Masters," Archer answered. "You know, the ones you have to fight for the Holy Grail?"

"WHAT?"

"Oh boy, are we in for a long night," was the soft chuckle to Hermione's shriek.

* * *

**Malfoy Manor**

Lars Von Einzbern withheld the urge to sigh as he watched his master and fellow Death Eaters work. He and the five most loyal Death Eaters including the Lestrange Family, Lucius Malfoy, and Rookwood were sitting at six summoning arrays drawn on the floor of the Malfoy ballroom. Voldemort was sitting on his throne and next to him, Berserker was likewise watching with his insane scowl. Since confusing the Holy Grail hadn't worked and instead triggered a new Grail War, Voldemort planned to have his minions summon the remaining six Servants so that they would all do battle with each other and the winner would face Berserker and throw the match so that Voldemort could claim the Grail.

Lars doubted that the new plan would work, knowing that the Grail had a mind of its own and would no doubt choose who the seven Masters would be. He'd be surprised if the plan did work, but he couldn't voice those doubts since he was on something of thin ice already with the Dark Lord for his plan not working perfectly and getting Yaxley killed in the process even if it did give Voldemort a new Servant at the same time. So he kept his mouth shut and got the materials ready. It had taken a few days to get the materials together, but since no one else knew about the War starting all over again, everyone figured they had time enough for it. Now with the six arrays on the floor, Voldemort signalled for the Death Eaters to begin.

All of them began to make their chants, channelling their magical power into the arrays under Voldemort's watchful eye. They did their work quickly, not wanting to try their lord's patience any long than they had to. Soon, light filled the room as the first of them completed their chant for summoning a Servant, forcing everyone there to shield their eyes and prevent any damage that might go to them. It didn't stop the others from completing their on summoning chants, albeit with their eyes closed. The onrush of power and energy kept everyone's eyes shut, but they so dearly hoped that their efforts would prove fruitful and thus worthy of their lord's praise. As the rush died down, they opened their eyes to see if their hopes weren't in vain.

"Are you my Master?"

Lars blinked and stared at the man standing on front of him, feeling a great measure of relief. His Servant was clad in a black coat and tight brown pants made for running and fighting in. A bandolier ran across his chest while he wore old leather boots and gloves. He appeared to be a soldier in Lars' eyes, though where he came from was anyone's guess. Lars may have had better ideas if he could see the Servant's face, but it was hidden behind the shadows of the hooded black cloak he was wearing.

"_Servant Rider has heeded your call,_" the man spoke, his voice echoing despite the hall not being that big.

With Bellatrix Lestrange was a tall man whose torso was encased in bronze Greek-style armour which had several images crafted onto it, matched by a bronze kilt. He wore leather and bronze leggings to protect his legs and wore leather sandals. In one hand was a long spear which had a silver head that looked incredibly sharp, too sharp to have been made by a mortal. His other hand gripped a shield that had many images carved into its surface. Finally he wore a helmet which was made of bronze and covered the majority of his head, save for a portion which revealed his face but even that had a section running down the length of his nose. On top of the helmet was a decoration not unlike a horse's mane, making him appear taller.

"Servant Lancer has appeared," the man spoke gruffly.

Lastly in front of Lucius Malfoy was a lithe woman who even standing still, exuded sexuality, grace, and death all in one package. Her skin was a midnight black which helped her blend into the darkened room quite easily. She wore simple leather pants over her legs with daggers on her hips while her upper arms and wrists were decorated with thin fabric straps. Her top was bikini-like in that it covered the bare minimum and let her muscled abdomen be revealed. The garment was connected to a bronze set of rings around her neck. All in all, her body looked very desirable. Her face though was a different story. She had long purple/blue hair that was tied into a simple ponytail, reaching down past her behind and silver hoop earrings which added to her beauty, but her face was concealed by a skull-like mask which prevented her true face from being seen at all.

"Servant Assassin has answered your summons," her voice called as smoothly and seductively as her body proposed it would be.

Voldemort watched with a frown as three of his Death Eaters managed to accomplish what he set them out to do. The other three on the other hand seemed to have failed miserably. Berserker seemed to hear his Master's displeasure and was growling faintly, just waiting for the order to attack. Gripped in his hand was a barbed spear which he was able to manifest whenever he felt like it, which was more or less all the time. It was long and was polished steel which was a few feet long, and that was just the metal section rather than the shaft.

"Rider, Lancer, and Assassin," Voldemort frowned. "I seem to recall that Saber, Archer, and Caster are also Servants, yet I do not see them here. Einzbern, why do I not see six Servants in front of me?"

"I...I would have to surmise…that…the Grail did not see fit to allow those three Servants to be summoned by us," Lars gulped, forgetting Rider for the moment. "If that is true, then the Grail may already be manipulating events so that someone else will summon those Servants."

"So those without Servants were unworthy, and the Grail will be finding Masters elsewhere," Voldemort frowned. Rookwood and the Lestrange brothers felt their stomachs clench, fearing that they would be made to feel the Cruciatus Curse for their failure. Voldemort merely got up from his throne as stepped forward, Berserker following him. "I should be angry at those of us here who were found unworthy, but I am a rational man and know that a powerful magic such as the Grail is not something that can be bent to one's will. However, it saw fit to grant us four Servants for our cause. For that, I feel lenient. With these four, we will be able to deal with the likes of Saber, Caster, and Archer soon enough," he then looked to the group as if acknowledging them for the first time. "Bellatrix, Lucius, Lars, you three are to remain here with me. The rest of you, leave my sight!"

Rookwood and the Lestrange brothers left without a word, leaving their fellows, master, and the four Servants behind. Although Lars did feel confident with having Four Servants on their side, he still held some doubts. Saber was hailed as one of the greatest of the classes and would be a considerable threat alone. Archer was likewise a long-range expert, something that most wizards these days had little to no skill in and thus easy prey for the Heroic Spirit. Lastly Caster would have access to powerful magic which no one would have seen in centuries, if not millennia. Oh some may argue that some branches of magic withered out because they were weaker, but Lars knew that some of the most powerful magics of all died out was because there was no one left to pass the secrets onto, or those masters merely took their secrets to the grave with them. Of all the Servants to have not been called to their side, Saber, Caster, and Archer had to be the worst ones of all.

* * *

**Lovegood Residence**

Luna Lovegood hummed a nonsensical tune to herself as she drew a complicated circle on the floor inside of her room. Every year she attempted the same thing since her mother sadly passed away. She was one of the few witches whom conferred with both the Mage's Association and the Ministry of Magic. She was working in the Department of Mysteries and was researching ways to come into contact with Akasha, the Root of all Worlds. While the tried and true method of the Third True Magic was available at the time, it harboured too much brutality and greed for the Unspeakable's tastes. So, she researched other ways which unfortunately ended up with her discovering the Veil which took her life.

Since then, Luna had always taken an interest in the Heaven's Feel, but not for the wish. What interested her more was the summoning of her own personal Hero which would obey her wishes. While she didn't really need a slave or Servant, she was hoping that she would receive a hero who would be her friend.

Luna's life in Hogwarts wasn't exactly fun. Her coming fourth year ominously felt like it would be much like her other three. She was a girl of average build with long blonde hair, but she often liked to wear a necklace made of butterbeer caps and strange earrings. Luna likewise believed in a number of magical creatures which had absolutely no proof of existing in modern magical society and she was mocked for it. She was doubly mocked because her father was the owner and publisher of _The Quibbler_, a magical magazine filled with all of the ideas of conspiracies and strange creatures which nearly no one believed actually existed. In Luna's opinion if people didn't want to believe simply because such small evidence existed then that was their poor luck. Funnily enough, many muggles believed the same about magic.

While Luna had a few friends like Ginny Weasley, they were all in different houses, leaving her alone in Ravenclaw to be mocked by the logic-minded students there. So part of why she was attempting to invoke the Third True Magic was to have someone she could truly trust inside of her own house. Being able to compete for the Holy Grail would be a nice side-effect. If she won then she would wish to know where all of the Crumple-Horned Snorlacks are in the world along with all of the information needed to find them. A few pictures of them would be very nice for her personal collection.

"Pumpkin, where are you?" the voice of Xenophilius Lovegood, Luna's father, called up from downstairs.

"Summoning a friend to my room Daddy," Luna answered dreamily.

"Okay. Try not to make a mess."

"I'll try," Luna called back.

With her father assured, Luna set back to work. She completed the array quickly. With the circle completed, she made her final checks before starting her chant. It was more or less gibberish based off the traditional chants which she read up in her mother's books. She just thought it was fun and perhaps might help her chances if she used words which sounded more magical.

Whatever the reason for her improvised words, it seemed to be working as the circle began to light up with magical power. She continued her chant as dreamily as she always spoke, even if the swell of hope was quite large in her chest. Maybe, just maybe this time would be the time she would receive her heroic friend. Still chanting, she closed her eyes and made a small prayer to any and all magical spirits listening, The Green Man, Hecate, whoever felt like listening. Divine spirits were busy people after all.

Then the circle unleashed a blast of light. Luna quickly covered her eyes so not to damage them; however she was finding herself to be quite thrilled with all that was going on. From the centre of the circle, a figure rose out of the wooden boards of her home. From head to toe, he was donned in emerald green armour. It held to true motif, but she could tell tree-like carvings spread across the sides. His armour held gentle slopes and branching imagery on its surface much like a forest. His helmet was was marked with a deer's head on the forehead with the antlers branching out. A pair of horns rose from the sides, spreading like antlers with leaves circling close to the neck. A single slit acted like the eyeholes with small holes around the mouth. Around his shoulders was a thick pelt of some animal which was a deep shade of green, much like his armour. On his hip was a large stone axe inlaid with several large emeralds which were glowing with their own light. All in all, he was very imposing.

"Are you my Master?" the green-armoured knight asked in a deep voice.

"I wonder," Luna pondered. Feeling a strange sensation in her right hand, she looked down to see a red marking which looked like a double-headed axe which was proken into three pieces. It was glowing softly across the back of her hand, not being harmful in the least. "It seems I am." Looking back to the knight, she asked. "May I know your name?"

"I am Caster fair lady," the knight answered, kneeling before the spacey blonde.

"My name is Luna,"

* * *

**Little Whinging**

Harry cursed mentally as another one of the black cloaked monsters he loathed swooped in an attempt to nab him. He didn't know what a pair of Dementors were during in Little Whinging, but it was quite obvious that they intended some serious harm on him and Dudley whom he was forced to carry.

Harry had successfully managed to bait Dudley and threaten him with his wand, even if he wasn't allowed to cast magic. It had freaked the larger boy out, but then things went straight to hell when the pair of Dementors suddenly appeared as the sun vanished. Harry could feel the memory of his parents' death creeping into his, a sure signal of their approach. Unfortunately, Dudley was suddenly sapped of his energy and had lost his sight in the presence of the soul-suckers. Normally Harry would have cast his Patronus, but with Dudley nearby, it didn't seem he was going to last long in the open. At the very least, getting him into some shelter would diminish the effects and give Harry the time needed to use his magic to drive the pair of monsters away.

"Come on Dudley!" Harry grunted, hefting the heavy boy's arm over his shoulder. As much as Dudley obviously hated his cousin, the heavyset boy obviously knew when it was time to put that aside in favour of getting out of a given situation alive. It put him ahead of his parents at least.

The pair of teenagers dashed (i.e. stumbled) across the street towards one of the houses of Little Whinging. Harry eyed one of the houses which were for sale. The 'for sale' sign was obviously old from the childish drawings on its surface. Still, it was enough for Harry as he walked/dragged his cousin to the front door.

"Dudley, kick forward!" Harry shouted.

"Hrah!" Dudley grunted, kicking forward with what energy he had left. The lock splintered easily and the door swung open. Harry managed to get himself and his cousin inside before slamming the door shut. Glancing around, he spotted an old box filled with something he hoped was heavy. Grabbing it, he yanked the box in front of the door and pressed against it tightly. The screeching noise of the Dementors collided with the wooden door, making Harry step back with his wand. He set his cousin onto the floor, knowing that he would need mobility to take the pair of Azkaban guards down before they did some serious damage.

The screeches of the Dementors died down, making Harry realize that they were looking for an alternate way into the house. He reacted quickly and turned around to try ad see which way the Dementors would try to enter. He scanned the room and quickly found it filled with boxes of junk, but quickly ignored them. Dashing across the room, he discovered that there were some windows, which Harry quickly dashed towards. Pushing back boxes and feeling the corners impact against his legs, Harry began checking the locks of the windows, making sure they were locked. Frost was already collecting over the glass, indicating that the Dementors were getting closer. Locking the last of the windows in the room, Harry watched one of the pair drag its fingers across the frosted surface.

"Not today," Harry grimaced as he backed away.

Then another screech sounded off.

Harry turned around in fear and watched as a black mass of rags and smoke pour out of the fireplace, giving Harry a brief recollection of how Hogwarts acceptance letters burst out of the fireplace when he was eleven. The only difference was that what was coming out of the fireplace this time wasn't something offering him freedom from the Dursleys.

"_Expecto-!_" Harry cried out in preparation, but as he backed away from the Dementor, he tripped over one of the smaller boxes and fell onto his back with a thud. Groaning, he gasped as his mother's screams echoed violently in his mind as the Dementor stood tall and began reaching for him. "No!"

Then light violently exploded from the floor.

The Dementor screeched and backpedalled away from the light, attempting to shield itself from the light it despised. Harry shielded his eyes at well, and found that he was sitting on the outer edge of a strange circle filled with designs he didn't recognize. In front of him, Harry saw blood drops in the centre which made a trail up his leg where a moderate cut existed, but the bespectacled boy wouldn't quite draw the connection until later. From the centre of the circle, a figure began to rise and if anything, cause the Dementor more fear.

The figure was likely male, and donned in a completely black suit of armour. The armour was configured in jagged edges and ornate dark designs. Harry could have almost sworn that the armour was steel trying to emulate evil. From the knight's back hung several black strips of fabric with ornate black metal tips, possibly for decorative purposes or maybe some other unknown reason. The limbs looked powerful, with all of the heavy armour fitted upon the human frame, making the figure appear to be someone Harry did not want to mess with. The helmet was smooth with a single slit for eyes ending with cross-like markings on either side. From the back of the helmet a long blue ponytail-like ornament hung and while it travelled, it turned from blue to black. Harry knew logically he should have been afraid of the man's fearsome image, but for some reason all he could feel was pity as he peered into the knight's void-like visor.

The light died down and with it, a portion of the Dementor's fear. Making another screeching sound, it began to approach Harry and the strange knight which had appeared. Harry felt his mother's screams reappearing and he quickly began struggling to muster up a happy memory to drive it away. However, the black knight was already moving into action. Reaching to one of the packed boxes, he retrieved what seemed like a cricket bat and started wielding it as a weapon. At first Harry thought that the knight was insane, but to his great shock, purple veins began to spread across the item, making it grow and shift to look like it was made of steel and a twisted version of its former self. The Dementor wasn't intimidated as it continued to approach, but the knight didn't back down either. Rearing his improvised weapon back, the knight unleashed a monstrous swing which smashed the bat against the Dementor's head. Harry saw a purple flash and heard the Dementor scream before a loud crash followed. Rubbing the stars from his eyes, Harry gaped when he saw the knight releasing his stance and the Dementor rolling across the ground in some quite obvious pain.

"You…hurt it?" Harry gasped in shock.

The knight remained silent, dropping the cricket bat. Before Harry's eyes, the purple veins receded and returned the sports item to its natural form. The knight remained tense though, as if anticipating another attack. Said next attack came as the door Harry blocked was slammed open and the second Dementor came flowing inside of the space it created. Like before, the knight seemed to be unaffected by the presence of the monster and grabbed another item poking out of the cardboard boxes, this time an actual fire poker. Like before, purple veins spread through the item and turned it into a twisted spear-like version of itself. The Dementor came screaming towards the knight, but the black armoured man merely reared back his arm and hurled his improvised weapon at his opponent.

Another horrible screech echoed out as the Dementor was pierced by the transformed poker and savagely pinned to the wall. The Dementor's wail echoed and then died out completely as black smoke spewed out from every space available of the monster's body. The cloak emptied and became a crumbling mass of rags. The Dementor was dead.

The remaining Dementor, obviously terrified that its comrade had died, suddenly got a hold of itself and grit through its pain before it flew away from the knight and out of the door into the night. Harry was left alone with his nearly unconscious cousin and the black knight in the room. Harry's eyes were riveted on the black knight as he turned to face the teenager. Silently, the knight calmly approached Harry with not a single threatening move, but his image was threatening enough in his eyes. When he was only a short distance away from Harry, the knight came down on one knee and gazed at The-Boy-Who-Lived almost expectantly.

Gulping, Harry found his voice, "Who…who are you?"

"I am Saber," the knight replied, his tone grim and full of sadness. "And you are my Master."

* * *

**To be Continued… (Maybe)**

A/N: Well, when I started getting into Fate/Stay Night, I pondered with the idea of making up my own Grail war along with following the fifth Grail War from canon. Well, you all know my attempt to follow canon in Fate/Stay Night: Ultimate Master. This on the other hand is my attempts at making my own Grail War and doing things the way I want to. I set it apart from Fuyuki City since the War there would follow the canon style of war so setting it in a different country and having been triggered by the likes of Voldemort would give me some creative leeway.

For those of you who are curious, should this story be continued, Arturia, Shirou, and Rin would be making appearances eventually since two of the new Servants play a role on Arturia's past.

So, love it? Hate it? Curious? Want in continued? Better off forgotten? Let me know.


	11. FateIngens Cor 2

I do not own Harry Potter or Fate/Stay Night. I am only writing this for fun and for nothing in terms of monetary gain. If you're looking to sue me then forget about it. I am writing this for the sake of writing.

Fate/Ingens Cor

By Ten-Faced Paladin

Chapter 2: Over your Head

Harry couldn't help but blink when the black knight, Saber seemed to proclaim Harry as his Master. To be fair, the moment had been rather surreal for Harry. Being chased by two Dementors while attempting to keep his cousin safe strained his nerves and when it seemed that one of the Dementors would get him, Saber appeared and beat down one Demntor with a cricket bat before piercing another one to a wall with a fire poker, killing it. The black knight actually somehow used magic to modify the two ordinary items and transform them into weapons which were capable of harming, and even killing a Dementor.

Naturally, suddenly finding yourself the supposed master of such a being would bring up one's mental facilities short.

"M-me?" Harry blinked. "Your…Master?"

"Yes Master," Saber nodded. "The Command Spells on your hand are evidence enough to me."

"M-my hand?" Harry blinked. Tearing his eyes away from Saber for the first time, he looked down at his hands to confirm or deny what the black knight was talking about. He quickly found what the iron-clad man was talking about, finding a red marking on his hand which appeared to look like a sword, with the blade, hilt, and handle all in separate pieces. Lifting his hand, Harry revealed the markings to Saber whom he couldn't tell if he was watching in patience or annoyance, "These?"

"Yes Master," Saber nodded. "Those are the proof of our contract. They mark you as my Master and as such, you can command me."

"O-oh," Harry breathed. Despite having been used to magic for some time now, he was finding himself truly floored by this intimidating knight, how he appeared, killed a Dementor, and then swore loyalty to him.

Still, part of Harry's mind reminded him that he was sitting on the floor and that he had dropped his wand. Grabbing it by pure reflex, he began to get too his feet even though the after-effects of his exposure to the Dementors was making his legs feel like wet noodles. The strength quickly failed and he was about to fall, but Saber's armoured hand quickly captured his wrist. Harry then felt himself pulled up to his feet as Saber rose.

"Thanks," Harry replied, mostly out of reflex. He received a nod from Saber in return. Once both were back on their feet, Saber gestured to where Dudley was laying on the ground, the close proximity to the Dementors having knocked him unconscious.

"What are we to do with him Master?" the black knight asked.

"That's my cousin," Harry replied, his awe over the situation quickly dissipating in light of the current emergency. "We need to get him back to my house! Uh…um…chocolate!" Saber's head quirked at the odd proclamation. "Oh never mind! Just pick him up and follow me!"

Saber nodded and quickly walked over to Dudley, his iron feet digging into the wooden floor. Grasping the boy around the sides and hefting him over his shoulder as if he were as light as a feather, Saber turned to look at Harry, silently asking for further orders. Harry was silently impressed at Saber's strength to lift a boy he was sure that was comparable to weight with a small cow. Rather than stand and gape at the sight though, he gestured for Saber to follow him as they headed for the door. Walking through the door with Saber in tow they headed for the sidewalk so they could get Dudley back home. Hopefully the people of Little Whinging would either be in their usual schedules and all be inside watching television or having dinner and wouldn't notice a black knight walking down the street with a boy slung over his shoulder.

"Don't move!"

'_Bugger!_' Harry thought with a grimaced as he turned to view who had spotted them. Who had called at him though was something of a surprise. "Mrs. Figg?"

Harry's eyes weren't lying to him. Directly in front of him was Mrs. Figg, the elderly woman whom the Dursleys would drop him off to when they went to take Dudley out someplace fun. She would usually give him stale sweets and make him look at all of the photo albums of her past cats while helping her feed all of the current cats she was the owner of. She was probably one of the most boring people Harry had ever met, even if she was leagues nicer than the Dursleys even on her worst day.

So, it was something of a surprise for him to see the old woman pointing what looked like a wand at Saber, whom was at Harry's back.

"Get over here Harry, quickly!" the old man spoke urgently before she looked at Saber. "You! Drop the boy! Now!"

Saber was not in the least bit intimidated, "My Master ordered me-"

"I don't care what You-Know-Who ordered! Drop the boy!" Mrs. Figg scowled. Her scowl hardened when she noticed that Harry had yet to actually move towards her and away from the black knight. "Harry, get over here now!"

"Mrs. Figg, it's all right!" Harry cried, trying to prevent any more violence for the night. Saber had killed a Dementor with what appeared to be minimal effort and he didn't want to see what would happen if he fought a grown witch. "He's not working for Voldemort!"

"Harry, you can't be sure!" Mrs Figg cried back, her wand still trained on the unmoving Saber. "Two Dementors and this fellow show up, I'd consider that pretty suspicious. He could have been the one who sent them for all you know!"

"But he isn't!" Harry insisted. "I'm the one who summoned him!"

That statement brought Mrs. Figg up short, making her wand dip down, "What?"

"My Master invoked the Third True Magic and called me to his side," Saber explained, showing an amazing amount of patience for someone who was being threatened. "I dealt with the threat and he ordered me assist him in bringing this boy home."

"The Third True Magic…?" Mrs. Figg blinked, he jaw beginning to drop. It was quite obvious from her tone that she didn't quite know what to make of the term, or she did know and couldn't believe it. Shaking her head, she returned to her stern face. "Fine, then follow me and heaven help you if anything funny happens."

The elderly woman tucked the wand into her dress pocket and began heading down the street. Harry, not really sure what to say merely followed with Saber obediently carrying Dudley after them. As Harry caught up with his older neighbour, he couldn't help but wonder if everything he knew about Mrs. Figg had been true or not.

"Mrs. Figg," he spoke tentatively. "How long have…"

"Have I been a witch?" asked Mrs. Figg. Glancing back at Saber, she sighed. "If this fellow is telling the truth then there's no harm in telling. I'm not actually a witch. I'm a squib."

Harry blinked, remembering the term to describe the eternally-sour custodian of Hogwarts, Argus Filch. Squib was a term used to describe someone who was born into a family of wizards and witches, but was unable to use magic themselves. It didn't matter to him if one was magical or not, but to a lot of the so-called upper society, it meant a lot and was more or less a declaration of the fact that your family line was dirty in some way, shape, or form. It was the kind of thing that Voldemort and the people like him wanted to 'purge' from wizarding society.

"Then why do you have a wand?" asked Harry.

"It's a fake. Albus gave it to me to scare off some of the less-courageous threats who might come your way if they thought you weren't the only magical in the area," the old woman answered, wistfully patting the pocket she had put the fake wand into. Obviously she still wished it wasn't a fake. "To answer your next question, Albus helped station me here so to keep a better eye on you, more so after last year. I wanted to be nicer to you over the years, but if those awful relatives of yours suspected I was treating you well then they would have made sure I never saw you again."

"Oh," Harry blinked. Today it seemed was a day for revelations. On one hand he was glad that someone at least had his back during his time in Little Whinging, even if they were limited in their movements lest the Dursleys take him away from her and work doubly hard to make him unhappy. On the other hand though, someone had been more or less spying on him his whole life, working for Dumbledore no less. How the elderly headmaster seemed content to send him back to a household which didn't want him every year just couldn't compute in Harry's mind.

"I just can't believe bloody Dementors would come out into the middle of a muggle area. I am going to kill Mundnungus when I see him again." Mrs. Figg frowned. "I think it's safe to say that they were coming specifically after you since you're the only wizard in all of Little Whinging"

"Someone is trying to assassinate my Master?" asked Saber with a dark undertone.

"Nothing new there," Harry sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"Then perhaps fortune favoured you when you summoned me when you did," Saber commented. "The one responsible for this will think twice when one of those beasts returns with tales of the other being killed."

Mrs. Figg suddenly halted, turned her gaze to Saber, "You killed a Dementor?"

"It was but a simple task," Saber replied. "Perhaps a small challenge to my accuracy because of their robes, but again it was not difficult."

"Third True Magic indeed," Mrs. Figg sighed, looking back down the street. "Well, maybe if whoever sent those Dementors hears one of them gets killed, they probably will think twice about sending another to try a second time. I just don't fancy what the Ministry may try once they hear of it. Supposedly they are in complete control all of the bloody monsters. Someone's going to raise a stink over this." The old woman trailed off into mutterings about how the Ministry of Magic was going to raise a stink or do their best to cover up the whole incident, ignoring the fact that they weren't in control of the beasts anymore. Her mutterings became even more venomous as she listed what she was going to do to someone named Mundungus Fletcher when she got her hands on him.

Harry stopped listening to the older woman's mutterings in favour of glancing back at Saber. Despite being more or less recovered from the adrenaline rush, The Boy-Who-Lived was still unsure what to truly make of the black knight whom claimed loyalty to him. He was intimidating enough to be sure and could have easily been mistaken for being part of the dark wizard movement. However, despite this Harry just couldn't seem to find it in himself to be afraid of the knight. Maybe it was because of how Saber had saved his life or maybe it had something to do with the contract the pair had formed, the proof of which resided on the back of Harry's hand. Something about the knight just made it impossible to think of him in any kind of negative light. Harry just hoped that it was a kind of charisma or something rather than a mood-altering magic which the contract had put on him.

"Well, seems like we're here," Mrs. Figg sighed, snapping Harry from his thoughts. The soon-to-be fifteen year old blinked and saw that he was indeed back at Number 4 Privet Drive. The sight of his home made his heart sink. He knew that there was no way to play off what happened to Dudley since his aunt and uncle were going to blame him no matter what, and rightly so for a change since the Dementors were after him in the first place. They would throw him out in a heartbeat for this fiasco.

"Chin up Harry. It'll all work out," Mrs. Figg tried to reassure the young man. "I'll send word to Albus and see if we can't figure out just what the devil is going on," she then looked over to Saber. "As for you, might as well set the boy down and see if you can't hide anywhere. I suppose I have the space if you don't mind cats."

"I refuse to leave my Master's side," Saber retorted.

"Well I hardly believe that the boy's aunt and uncle will let you into the house," Mrs. Figg sighed. "They have a positively medieval attitude towards magic as it is and I sincerely doubt they'd accept you with open arms despite having saved their son."

"If Master allows me to astralize then I can," Saber replied.

"What?" the old woman and the young man blinked simultaneously.

"Master, your magical power is what fuels me," Saber explained. "Should you constrict the flow of magic between us, I will be reverted into a ghost-like state. I will be able to follow you anywhere and keep you safe at all times."

"Well isn't that convenient," Mrs. Figg commented. "Alright then, hand Dudley over and we'll see if Harry can't make that happen. Heaven knows I don't know how we haven't been spotted by the neighbours yet. They're particularly nosy around this area. I've caught them peeking over each others' fences enough times."

Harry nodded before he and Mrs. Figg retrieved Dudley from Saber's grip. Once the unconscious boy was secured and not in danger of dropping to the ground, Harry turned his concentration to what Saber had told him. Harry wasn't quite sure how controlling his magical energy was supposed to work, but he was apparently going to have to limit the flow to Saber in order for him to hide in plain sight. To that end, Harry imagined an image of himself and one of Saber with a glowing blue line connecting the two of them. With the image clear in his mind, Harry imagined a clamp appearing in the middle of the line, making the side Saber was on grow smaller. Not enough to cut the line off completely, but significantly restricted.

"Harry," the voice of Mrs. Figg gasped out.

Harry opened his eyes and immediately almost lost his concentration. Right in front of him, half of Saber's body had turned transparent and his upper half was quickly catching up with the rest of him. Right before his eyes, Saber had turned completely transparent, not looking out of place from the Hogwarts ghosts save for the colour. What was more amazing was the fact that it seemed like Mrs. Figg couldn't see him anymore

"Third True Magic indeed," Mrs. Figg blinked. Shaking her head, shaking her head she turned back to Harry. "Okay Harry, I'll see if I can't speak to Albus and try and figure out what is going on. Obviously if Dementors are running loose then something very bad is happening. You try to keep your head down until school starts or someone gets in contact with you. Hopefully Saber can keep you out of trouble in case something like this happens again."

"Right," Harry sighed.

"Stay strong Harry," Mrs. Figg offered as parting words before she began heading back to her cat-populated house.

Harry watched her go before heaving a sigh and looking back to Number 4. He knew that it was time to face the music, or at least his aunt's shrieking.

"Let's get this over with."

* * *

**Granger Residence**

Dan and Emma Granger liked to think that they were rational and tolerant people. They liked to get all of the facts and think things through before they made a decision about things. Granted, for most of the time their daughter had growing up, there were things they couldn't explain. Some events such as when she was a toddler and wanted her favourite teddy bear, it would suddenly pop into her arms. Another event was when she was being bullied by other girls in her class she suddenly vanished and after several hours of searching her school, they found her at home curled up in her bed. Needless to say, they just weren't sure what to make of it, but they adapted as best they could and tried to keep their lives going.

When Minerva McGonagall appeared on their doorstep one day and all but destroyed the Granger's notions of society as they knew it, they felt they took the news pretty well. The Deputy Headmistress calmly explained everything that happened to Hermione in terms of the odd things surrounding her and why. She even guided them through Diagon Alley, Gringotts, and all of the stores they needed to visit in order to get everything Hermione would need in her upcoming schooling. They were a little at odds with how Hermione was going to be missing out on non-magical schooling, but considering how she could have ended up a danger to herself as well as others without proper training they felt it was a good decision.

They still had her doubts when they kept hearing stories of how Hermione wasn't making friends like she had hoped. Then they heard of some of the dangerous things her friend Harry Potter kept getting up to while in school. Hermione vouched for Harry's strength of character over and over, which put to rest any relevant doubts in their minds about the boy. Still, hearing about what amounted to a giant snake attacking the students, a criminal teacher attempting to kill him, a terrorist disguised as a teacher just to get at the boy, and a tournament which had been cancelled due to numerous deaths only for it to be reinstated with little or no new safeguards was completely ridiculous. It seriously brought a number of doubts about the safety of their daughter, especially with the return of this Voldemort fellow who supposedly had made it his mission to remove people like their daughter from magical society simply because she was born to non-magical parents. The only reason they allowed Hermione to continue going to Hogwarts with all of this danger going on was because she was able to learn how to defend herself properly from such people.

Well, that and she could give an excellent argument in any sort of debate.

It was also why they permitted her to research into magic and experiment with potions while she was home. Since she really couldn't use her wand as decreed by magical law, they felt it was safe enough to let her go on her way. When she reported she wanted to try something she found in one of her books in the basement, they gave their permission for it. What they were expecting at the worst was a small bang or a foul smell of some sort from a potion which their daughter may have mucked up in her experiments. What they certainly weren't expecting was the flash of light which came through even their pristine floorboards and the sudden appearance of their daughter's new…friend.

So Emma and Dan were sitting at the living room table with ready-to-serve tea, sitting across from Hermione and her green-clad redheaded friend whom according to the fifteen-year-old she had summoned with the experimentation she had been doing in the basement. Calling himself Archer, he was happily enjoying the tea and making some attempt to calm the two adults' nerves and doing a rather splendid job.

"This is good," Archer complimented the Granger matriarch on her tea. "I never got to enjoy a good drink beyond some ale or water for a long time."

"Um, thank you," Emma nodded. She had to admit that the redhead was quite handsome and had a certain boyish charm which was more than a little enticing. He seemed to exude an aura of relaxation that put everyone in the room at ease, like you could trust this man to help you when you were in need. Despite wanting to grill him about who he was and his intentions towards her daughter, Emma couldn't help but be slightly taken with him.

"So just where did you come from anyway?" asked Dan, not wanting to get sidetracked.

"The Throne of Heroes," Archer replied, pouring himself another cup.

"Throne of Heroes?" asked Hermione, her natural curiosity rearing its head. "What's that?"

"In layman's terms, the place where heroes go when they die," Archer replied, helping himself to some sugar. "There, depending on our deeds and such we are given peace, relaxation, and maybe some new friends we can talk to until such a time we are summoned again for whatever reason. Your daughter just managed to snag me as her Servant."

"So you're some kind of legendary hero then?" asked Emma. "Would we have heard of you?"

"I should think so," Archer smiled. "That's why I'm calling myself Archer right now. Don't want the wrong kinds of people to figure out who I am and find out what I'm capable of."

"You say that like you expect to get into fights," Dan frowned.

"Oh I do," Archer replied, sipping his tea. "You see, if anyone could summon a Servant like me at any time, there would be a whole lot more magi who would be doing it. Sadly, that isn't the case. Only seven people can summon a Servant at a time and when those seven are summoned, a powerful ritual takes place."

"This Holy Grail you mentioned," Hermione answered.

"Yup," Archer nodded. "Basically what happens is; the seven Servants will fight each other until one is left. When that happens, the Holy Grail will appear and grant a wish for the winners. It's a cutthroat free-for-all with no holds barred. There are rules and regulations of course, but basically it's last man standing."

"And what makes you so sure our daughter is involved?" asked Emma, clearly not liking the idea of her daughter having to take part in such an awful competition. "What if someone else tried to summon you and you just ended up appearing in front of her by accident?"

"The Command Spells," Archer replied, settling his cup down. "Master has on her hand a marking which signifies our contract. So long as she holds those markings, she's my Master and thus a participant in the Grail War. Check yourself if you don't believe me."

Hermione flinched slightly when indeed her parents looked to her hand for confirmation to Archer's explanation. Reluctantly, she revealed the back of her right hand which was marked with three glowing arrows which were crossing over one another. Hermione could see her mother wilt under the faint light of the markings while her father grew sterner.

"Just how bad is this supposed war going to get?" asked Dan.

"Bad," Archer replied, no longer looking calm and friendly but rather serious. "Aside from having to keep it all a secret, we Servants have free reign to take out our enemies however we can. We're also empowered by our legends so you can bet that I'm stronger than I was when I was alive and capable of doing things I wasn't able to before. All of us Heroic spirits get that particular perk."

Dan frowned deeply and crossed his arms. This was getting to be too much for him. The whole magic school and becoming a witch thing he could get around with time, but being drafted for a war she had no intention of joining in the first place? Dan wouldn't stand for it. "Is there any way of getting her out of this competition? Can't she give her…Command Seals to someone else?"

"Doesn't work that way as far as I can tell," Archer sighed. "Even if she gave temporary command to someone else, she'd still be my Master, just with someone else acting in her stead as a representative. Sure, she'd probably be a bit safer but it would be harder for me to protect her since I'd have to look out for my temporary Master too. I'm sorry to have to worry you like this, but this is one of those things that when they start up, they're impossible to stop until it's over."

"No, it's better we get through this now rather than find out later when you drag Hermione home half-exhausted from fighting someone like King Arthur or something," Emma sighed, massaging the bridge of her nose. "You mentioned there would be six others. Do you know anything about them?"

"Just their Classes I'm afraid," Archer shrugged.

"Classes?" asked Hermione, daring to speak up.

"Basically, the seven ways Servants are grouped together judging by their skill set," Archer explained, helping himself yet another cup of tea. "For example, I'm Archer. That means I'm good at long-range combat and pretty light on my feet if or when the time comes. I've also got some of the best technique among the seven Classes." He paused to take a sip of tea. "Oh, I'm also resistant to magic too. Low level spells won't work on me and it'll take some considerable power to get me with the medium-level things or else I can shrug those off too."

"And the others?" asked Dan, although he did like what he heard of Archer's Class abilities. Dealing with magic made a natural resistance valuable, not to mention he liked the idea of sniping while Archer kept his daughter out of harm's way.

"Well, next there's Rider," Archer continued. "Riders are Heroes who specialize at cavalry-style combat. You know, like the stories of knights who ride in on a white steed and things like that. Only it's not always easy to figure out what they ride sometimes. They could be riding chariots or mythical creatures and we wouldn't know until they bring those things out. "

"That's two," Emma frowned. Two classes and she wals already beginning to feel overwhelmed for her daughter.

"After that is Lancer. For as fast as I could be, Lancers are usually faster. They're specialized for speed fighting and their weapons of choice are spears or lances. Their range is pretty good, but its better suited for close fighting rather than real long range like I can fight. Oh, they can resist magic like I can too."

"I'm almost afraid to ask about the others," Hermione gulped.

"Well I'm going ahead anyway," Archer grinned, taking another sip. "Next is Saber, hailed as one of the greatest classes and obviously the best when it comes to swords. Anyone who takes part in the Grail Wars usually tries to go for Saber first. They're some of the toughest opponents and like me and Lancer, naturally resistant to magic thanks to our Classes. That's sort of what can make summoning Lancer, Archer, or Saber so difficult because they have a high resistance to the magic which is used to summoning them."

"Are all of the Classes able to resist magic?" asked Hermione with some slight fear.

"No, but depending on the Servant it may not matter," Archer answered. "Case in point, Caster. These Servants are the kinds of heroes who used magic as their mean weapon during their lives. Compared to modern magi, these guys are as tough as you can get. They are capable of using spells no one has seen in a long time, much less heard of. They don't have a magical resistance due to their Class, but they know their way around magic so well it probably doesn't matter."

"So three of the seven can resist magic while another can use it on a level of mastery?" asked Dan. "What about the other two?"

"Berserker, probably the worst to go up against but the hardest to control," the redhead replied. "These Servants are heroes who went mad at some point in their lives. They're summoned crazy and their madness enhances their strength and some of their abilities. It can also work against them in some of the more precision-oriented skills but they can get so strong that it doesn't really matter."

"Oh my…" Emma gasped. "You don't think someone like Hercules would qualify, do you?"

"Who?" asked Archer.

"He's a….he's a hero from Greek legend," Emma gulped. "He was the son of the greatest of the Greek gods, Zeus. His legend states that one day he was just driven mad for some reason and killed his family. When he returned to sanity, he saw what he did and begged for redemption. He got it when he completed twelve supposedly impossible tasks."

"If that's the legend, then this Hercules guy will definitely qualify. Hope he wasn't summoned for this War," Archer frowned, making Emma turn pale.

"What's the last one?" asked Dan.

"Assassin," Archer replied. "No clue which hero could qualify for that one, but apparently they are there. They have the ability to conceal their presence from others so it's pretty hard to pin them down unless they show themselves. Even I'd have trouble shooting one unless I had a clear view of the guy. All in all, these guys probably defined the term 'silent killing'."

"No pressure," Hermione gulped.

"Can't really sugar-coat something like this," the redhead sighed.

"Boy is that an understatement," Emma snorted.

"No kidding," Archer snickered. Reaching forward, he grabbed the teapot, but found it empty. Since the Granger's hadn't touched their own cups since Archer had begun his explanation, it was quite obvious who had emptied it. Glancing at the empty teapot, he placed it back down and looked to Emma. "More tea please?"

* * *

**Lovegood Residence**

Luna walked down the stairs and into the kitchen of her home with Caster following obediently. The green armoured knight looked somewhat out of place inside the modest home of the Lovegood family, but considering how Xenophilius and Luna chose to perceive the world and the various beings which may or may not exist in it, he actually fit in quite well with them. Speaking of the esteemed editor of _The Quibbler_, Xenophilius was having some of his evening tea as he read one of the previous issues of his magazine upside down at the dinner table.

"Hello muffin," Xenophilius greeted his daughter. Glancing up from his magazine, he spotted Caster following his daughter. "Is this your new friend?"

"Yes Daddy," Luna nodded as she approached the table. "Daddy, this is Caster. Caster, this is my Daddy."

"Pleasure to meet you Mr. Caster," Xenophilius greeted, nodding to the knight.

"Sir," Caster replied with his own nod, taking the father and daughter pair's personality quirks in easy stride.

"It's so good to see you making new friends Dear," Xenophilius smiled at his daughter as she and her Servant took a seat at the table. Xeno drew up (literally) a pair of teacups and presented them to the pair. Luna politely took the teapot and drew some tea for the both of them. Taking a cup for herself, she passed one to Caster who seemed content to enjoy the scent for the time being.

"I'm quite surprised that you managed to be summoned Mr Caster," Xenophilius commented from his paper. "My wife tried for many years to find a way to summon if only for a better idea how to reach Akasha. Is your appearance here a sign that a new Grail War is beginning?"

"I'm afraid so, yes," Caster nodded. "One your daughter has officially joined."

"Ah, how exciting," Xenophilius smiled. "Usually the Grail Wars are held in Fuyuki City all the way over in Japan and I'm afraid our travel budgets just don't have the ability to travel that far out these days. Even if we did have the capital, we just never know when one is going to begin. The Mage's Association has been awfully stingy about that information. Having a War occur here in England would be such a surprise for everyone," perking as if an idea came to him, Xeno turned to his daughter. "Moonflower, if you can manage it see if you can't interview some of the other Servants for the War. It's not everyday one meets legendary heroes on the street. Well, not these days anyway."

"I will Daddy," Luna smiled. "Do you think King Arturia was summoned this time?"

Luna nor Xeno really noticed Caster perk slightly at the name.

"I should hope so," Xeno sighed wistfully. "Interviewing her would be such a help to history as we know it. All of the mysteries she could clear up about Merlin and Morgan le Fay would possibly rewrite the history textbooks. I keep telling everyone and showing them the solid evidence that King Arthur was in fact born Arturia Pendragon. However, no one seems quite willing to believe that one of the most powerful kings in all of Britain was a woman. I wonder why."

Caster looked to the side, but the slight shaking of his shoulders told him that he was rather amused.

"They'll come around Daddy," Luna reassured her father.

"One day," Xeno nodded. Sighing to rid himself of doubt, he looked to Caster. "So Mr. Caster, is there anything we should be made aware of about the upcoming Grail War? We're in the middle of a Dark Lord crisis ourselves at the moment and we wouldn't want to step on anyone's toes after all. We must take our turns with our wars."

"I…would say there was an official to mediate the war…" Caster began. "But…the Grail has not alerted me with even a hint."

"Hm, do you think it might be an unsanctioned War?" asked Luna.

"Maybe. How strange," Xeno replied. "Well, if we're going to get to the bottom of this, we're going to have to make like journalists and see what we can learn about the situation."

"I thought that the Ministry didn't want to admit that the Grail War exists since that would mean the Mage's Association managed to take magic to a further level than they had," Luna commented idly with a sip of her tea.

"The Ministry won't admit it, but Unspeakables will," Xeno answered with a dreamy smile. "After all, who would believe that one of them said anything?"

"Oh, how clever," Luna smiled.

Caster merely watched the father and daughter pair interact. They were rather odd, but endearingly so. They took in everything he told them with ease and seemed to have a fair bit of information of their own. They didn't seem to care much for the Grail itself, but rather the chance to meet Heroic Spirits like himself.

"Well then, business aside and all that," Xeno smiled as he set down his magazine. "Are there any adventures you had which you might be able to regale us with Mr. Caster?"

The green knight smiled behind his helmet. Oh yes, he might truly enjoy his time here.

* * *

**#4 Privet Drive**

Harry's return to Number 4 Privet Drive was just about as bad as he had expected it to be. With Dudley just barely returning to consciousness and brought in the door by Harry, his Aunt Petunia unleashed a most horrifying shriek. She was instantly at Dudley's side, pushing Harry aside and fretting over the large boy and constantly asking what had happened. Dudley seemed able to speak, but he didn't say anything to condemn or defend Harry, which seemed to make Harry guilty by default…as usual.

That was when Uncle Vernon came down the stairs and grabbed Harry by the back of the neck, pushing him into the living room with what felt like the force of a train.

"What happened!" the man growled out, his face turning into an interesting shade of red. "What did you do to my boy!"

"It wasn't me! We were attacked by Dementors!" Harry cried out, clawing at Vernon's hand.

"Dementors? What the bloody hell are Dementors?" the walrus-like man bellowed, pushing Harry into the living room where Petunia had placed Dudley onto the couch and was fanning him. Well, the woman had been fanning him until she heard mention of the Azkaban prison guards. Her shocked face distracted Harry for a moment, surprising him that she knew about the creatures.

"I asked you a question boy!" Vernon bellowed, his face turning purple at the edges.

"They're prison guards…" Petunia gasped out, causing Harry and Vernon to freeze. Both of them turned to look at the woman who had a growing look of horror over her face.

"Pet, you know those…Demento-things?" Vernon blinked.

"Dementors," Petunia shivered. "They're…they're prison guards for a place called Azkaban. It's a prison…for _them_. They…they suck people's souls out. Make them relive their worst memories. My sister…warned me about them…before she disappeared."

It was probably supposed to be scary to an extent and part of Harry's mind hoped that it would relay just how horrible the Dementors really were. However, Vernon quickly grabbed Harry by the lapels of his shirt and yanked him up close.

"You dare bring this FREAKISHNESS to my house?" he bellowed, his facing going absolute crimson from his rage. "Prison guards no less! I knew you were no good! I knew bringing you in would bring nothing but trouble! That's it! I've had enough! I want you and your freakish ways OUT! NOW!" He punctuated the statement by throwing Harry into the main hallway. The fifteen-year old stumbled and tripped across a misshaped floorboard and landed heavily on his back. Vernon didn't seem to care as he advanced on Harry with a bellow which wouldn't have sounded all that off from an enraged bear and his arm rearing back for to Harry was a quite recognizable signal for an approaching slap/punch.

Harry was sure he lost all feeling in his body waiting for the blow to come.

POW!

A punch did land, but it wasn't one that Vernon was aiming at Harry. Instead, it came from a black armoured arm that was floating in the air. Spreading from the shoulder joint was the rest of the body which Harry associated with Saber. The black knight fully materialized on the hardwood floor, lowering his fist. Harry blinked at the sudden appearance before he realized that Vernon had actually been launched down the hall and through the kitchen door from the force of the punch Saber had landed on him. Petunia was already screaming at the sight of the nightmarish knight, almost as if her screams would be able to drive him away from her and Dudley.

"You will not harm my Master," the knight growled, not really caring if Vernon was in any condition to listen to him.

"Saber…" Harry gasped, looking at his Servant.

"I apologize for not dealing with this cretin sooner Master," Saber commented, glancing at Harry over his shoulder. "I would have come to your aid faster, but it seemed you had forgotten to unleash your magic into the bond again."

Harry felt his face heat up slightly, feeling like he had made a rather silly mistake. Saber didn't seem to wait for a reply as he turned his gaze on Petunia and Dudley, the former of which clammed up as the knight's gaze landed on her. The black knight didn't make any threatening moves towards her though. Instead, he decided to speak to her, "Go check on your husband. I am very sure I broke his nose if not his jaw with that one blow."

Petunia gulped and nodded rapidly before she managed to somehow get Dudley back to his feet and race for the kitchen where Vernon had landed. Her sobbing over her husband was quite clear even through the closed doorway of the room. Satisfied that the Dursleys were not going to come near them, Saber finally turned his attention to his Master.

"Are you all right Master?" he asked, approaching Harry.

"Y-yes," Harry nodded. He attempted to stand up, but Saber somehow managed to gently grasp his arm despite the clawed form his gauntlets took before pulling him back onto his feet proper. "Thank-you."

"You are my Master. Your health and safety are my highest concerns," Saber replied.

Harry, easily guessed that he was probably not going to see his relatives for the rest of the night and decided to head for the stairs to his room. He had enough excitement for one night. Seeing no reason to return into his spectral form, Saber followed. The added weight of his body and armour made the stairs creak in protest. Both made their way to the second bedroom where Harry called his private space. It was quite noticeable since it had several locks on the outside of the door and a dog door which the Durseleys had slid food into during his second year when they tried to lock him up so to prevent him from ever going back to Hogwarts again.

Inside the room wasn't much better. It was filled with the toys and such one would have when they were growing up, but not one of them belonged to Harry. All of it was the toys and such that Dudley broke growing up so they just tossed them into this room while Harry had to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs. Every single toy in the room was destroyed in some way shape or form save for the posters on the wall and the books which Dudley had tossed in there since he didn't want them. It had gotten a few of Harry's personal touches since he was allowed to move in be it his trunk, some books from previous years, but the most treasured spot was a loose floorboard which Harry kept his most precious mementoes from his friends. The only other company Harry had was Hedwig, his snow white owl who was currently in her cage, staring at Saber quite sternly.

"It's okay girl. He's with me," Harry sighed, sitting down next to the cage and opening the door so Hedwig could hop onto his arm. As much as Harry wanted to hear from his friends, they never sent Harry a letter nor was Hedwig able to get a reply whenever he tried to send a letter. Hedwig would always come back looking rather irate or insulted. She wouldn't have the letter anymore, but there would be no reply either.

The white owl seemed to take Harry's word for Saber's character and settled down on her perch. Harry was just glad that somebody wasn't overreacting or going insane over Saber's presence. Sighing, he flopped back onto his bed and just started staring at the ceiling.

"Do you always live like this Master?" asked Saber as he examined the room.

"Everyday save for when I'm at school," was the boy's reply.

"Then why stay?"

"Because I don't have anywhere else to go," Harry sighed, turning his head to look at Saber. "Or rather, everyone in the places I could go would just send me back here. Apparently there's some kind of protection over this place that's keeping me safe from anyone in the outside world who wants to hurt me."

"But not from the people within," Saber added. He walked closer to the opposite wall with the rising moon illuminating his dark armour, almost like it was absorbing it. "I sensed the wards when you and the woman led me here. I profess to being no true master in the magical arts, but these wards do not seem to be very good."

"Some days I didn't think so either," Harry sighed. "They're tied to my blood relations or something. I think it's supposed to be powered by how my relatives 'love' me."

"Master, I have seen true love and what those people show is most certainly not it," Saber spoke. "I must admit they have some compassion to take you in and raised you since it seems to me that you are adopted, but compassion can only go so far and it is a very far cry from love."

"Don't I know it," Harry sighed, looking back up to the ceiling. "It seems like the weight of the world is on my shoulders and everyone is just happy to heap more onto me to see if I'll break or solve their problems for them."

"I know the feeling to an extent," Saber nodded, crossing his arms. He looked over to the bed where his young Master seemed to be burrowing into depression. "A friend once told me that it is good to speak about your problems. If it doesn't help bring a new solution, then it would at least a feel a little better to let it out."

Harry had to admit that it was good advice, but more often than not he didn't try to follow it. Harry had grown up more or less independent and wasn't used to having anyone to rely on for his problems. Now that he did, he didn't like burdening them with his problems. Of course lately it seemed that when he did try to get help for his problems he only ended up being disappointed by the result not being as helpful as he hoped or just getting more frustration for it. Still, Saber had literally dropped into his life from nowhere. He would probably not be too great of a help, but he couldn't be any more harmful either.

"I suppose you can say it all started back when I was a baby…"

* * *

**Malfoy Manor**

Lucius sat in his personal sitting room as he pondered the events of the day thus far. A lot had happened to say the least. Einzbern's plan to force the Holy Grail down to Earth was a failure, but in the end what they triggered was another Grail War in England rather than getting the Grail itself. The Dark Lord had summoned the mad Servant Berserker. Just looking at the white-haired madman brought shivers up the hardened Death Eater's spine. Few things could intimidate or scare him, the Dark Lord being among them. However, Berserker managed to force himself onto that list with just a deep look into his eyes. With the plan proving not to be a complete loss, the Dark Lord ordered all of them to make their own summoning arrays and summon the remaining six Servants. Einzbern had summoned Rider, his 'dear' sister-in-law summoned Lancer, and Lucius himself had called forth Assassin.

Lucius had to admit that Assassin was a very fine woman. Were it not for the fact that she could kill him in at least ten different ways, he would have had her service him regularly and often. Oh he could force her to do such with his Command Spells, but he only had three of them and using one for such a frivolous order would no doubt bring about a dire punishment from the Dark Lord. The Command Seals were meant to be used in case of emergencies and using them up would more or less mean death should the Servant not like you.

Assassin did definitely not like Lucius, the Dark Lord, or any of the Death Eaters. The Death Eaters had been in their robes and masks when they summoned their Servants and ever since laying eyes on them, Lucius could feel a glare on him whenever Assassin would turn her eyes towards him. She hid it on a level which Lucius found astonishing, but Lucius was used to people glaring at him behind his back so he knew it was her. Why she disliked him so suddenly, he didn't know nor did he really care. So long as she remembered who was the Master was he really didn't care all that much.

At the moment, he was watching Assassin amuse herself as she waited for an order much like how Lucius was waiting for word with the Dark Lord who was in conference with Einzbern. The black-skinned woman had her back turned to him, showing off her smooth behind and devilishly toned legs. Her hair looked incredibly soft as it brushed against her body as she dipped her head to examine something. When she turned her head slightly, he could see her smooth back and bare shoulders. In fact, the only mar against her beauty he could think of was the skull-like mask she wore at all times and even then she somehow made it look just as alluring, desiring to take her just to take off that mask and see her face beneath.

"Do you like what you see Master?" Assassin asked coyly, her fingers trailing across the mantle of a fireplace while turning her gaze to Lucius.

"Hn," Lucius grunted, ignoring the flirtatious tone in Assassin's voice. Against any other man, Assassin would be playing with them like toys. Lucius knew better though. He knew what she was and what she was capable of. Despite knowing this, despite having a wife and son, despite all of that his body still craved her. His urges demand he go over and turn her into his pleasure slave. Despite all of his knowledge and control, he was finding it most difficult to resist.

"I could truly be yours," she continued. "Just order it."

Lucius grit his teeth and tried to ignore the perspiration on his forehead. He looked to his hand to try and ignore Assassin's voice and body. He let his eyes gaze deeply into the skull like marking which was split into three sections with the right side, left side, and the jaw separated slightly into three different parts. It helped calm his mind and keep his thought away from carnal subjects, especially the teasing and offerings of his Servant. Taking a deep breath, he allowed his posture to reassert itself.

Assassin, seeing that her Master had resisted, dropped her aura of seduction and returned to her more professional and cold stance. Lucius could already hear the words 'your loss' ringing in his ears. He didn't mind too much though. He knew who Assassin truly was and her legend help him remember why he refused her quite blatant advances.

She was one of the 19 leaders of a cult of assassins known as Hassan-I-Sabbah. Muggle and magical alike in during their prime had enough sense to fear them. Their legends were quite numerous, but what made them so terrifying in so many ways was how they managed to execute their targets with such phenomenal ease that it made even experienced wizards gape at what happened. The leaders were supposedly immortal, but Lucius knew better though with most of the leaders being men or perhaps in his Servant's case just well-disguised it would be hard to dispute especially in the days of silly superstition. She was probably one who helped define the word assassin. Lucius knew that cunning and ambition didn't begin to describe one of the Hassan-I-Sabbah. He would have to remain especially sharp lest she find a way to betray him. All she would need was one opening and he would be dead, Command Spells be damned.

As Assassin and Lucius stared at one another, he felt the Dark Mark hidden on his arm begin to burn. He was being called by the Dark Lord. Rising from his chair, Lucius headed for the door to his sitting room, "Come."

"Yes Master."

* * *

**#4 Privet Drive—Harry's Room**

Harry didn't hold anything back. He told Saber about Voldemort, his subsequent abandonment to the Dursleys, discovering magic, and his adventures in Hogwarts. He told Saber about fighting the troll, defeating the challenges for the Sorcerer's Tone, facing Voldemort, the Basilisk, the possessed diary, Sirius, Wormtail, the truth about his parents, the Triwizard Tournament, how the school seemed to turn against him, Voldemort's revival, and finally his all around frustration with Fudge and the Ministry's denying the reality of said return.

Saber patiently listened to everything, not moving from his spot. Listening as Harry talked about his time at the school which became a second home to him. He listened to the things which Harry found amazing and wonderful about it and again listened to the things which drove Harry out of his mind with frustration. Harry knew at times that he was sounding childish while other times he talked about things that a fifteen-year old should not have to worry about. Thick and thin, Saber listened to all of it patiently and without a word to condemn or condone anything Harry had done. It was well into the night by the time Harry's story wound down.

When Harry finished, he waited for some kind of word on Saber's opinion. Even if the knight didn't really have much of an opinion over what had happened in his Master's life, Harry strangely felt much better after telling the story. Maybe the advice Saber's friend had given had some weight to it after all.

After another moment of silence, Saber spoke, "You have led quite an interesting life for one so young. My adventures didn't begin until I was well into manhood."

"I've never been considered normal I guess," Harry smiled weakly. "I just wish there was a way to stop Voldemort now before he starts another war."

"…" Saber remained silent for another moment. "Then it seems fate is weaving an intricate tapestry indeed."

"What do you mean?"

Saber looked up at Harry from where he was leaning against the wall, "Master, surely you can agree that abruptly summoning me is not something usually seen before." Seeing Harry nod, he continued, "That would mean that you summoning me serves a great important in the future ahead and maybe it will involve both this Voldemort and the Holy Grail War."

"What?" Harry blinked, sitting up for the first time. "Holy Grail? You mean THE Holy Grail?" He paused again. "Wait, what war?"

"No, it is just a name," Saber answered. "As for the War, summoning one such as myself is reserved for only seven individuals. The rules state that we will do combat with them and the last one standing will receive the Holy Grail and a wish for anything they desire."

"A…a wish?" Harry blinked. "For anything?"

"Anything," Saber restated.

Harry blinked again. His mind barely registered the war part, but the wish was mainly playing in front of his eyes. If Saber was telling the truth, and Harry had no reason to distrust him this far, then this could be his chance to put an end to Voldemort once and for all before more innocent people like Cedric got killed because of the madman. The War part seemed to be the only snag in the idea, making Harry wonder if he was about to get into another fight for his life. At the very least, it seemed that this time it might have more in it for him than simply stopping the bad guy from getting anything and receiving little to no thanks for his actions. While Harry was by far everything atypical of the definition 'glory hound' he would have appreciated a little more thanks from more people than just his friends every once in a while.

"So…what should I do?" asked Harry.

"I am but a Servant. I exist to follow orders, not give them," Saber answered.

"Then what would you suggest, as someone who knows about this?' Harry pressed.

Before Saber could give any kind of answer, a brown owl quite suddenly fluttered up to the windowsill, apparently as far away from Saber as it could. The bird scanned the room and spotted Harry before fluttering across the air and landing on his bed and sticking its leg out expectantly. Attached to said leg was a brown section of parchment sealed with wax, indicating that it was a letter and likely addressed to Harry.

Confused, Harry untied the letter and let the owl fly away before he opened it himself. Once the parchment was opened, Harry scanned over the words scrawled inside.

_Dear Mr. Potter_

_It has come to our attention that a powerful magical discharge was released inside Little Whinging several hours ago. In accordance, you are hereby under investigation for breaking the International Statue of Wizarding Secrecy as well as underage magic use. In accordance with this investigation, you are expected to cooperate fully with any and all investigators during this time._

_Your cooperation is highly appreciated_

_Mafalda Hopkirk_

_Head of the Improper Use of Magic Office_

"Great, just great…" sighed Harry.

"Master, what is wrong?" asked Saber, standing up properly at hearing the tone in his Master's voice.

"I'm basically being investigated for underage magic use outside of Hogwarts," Harry, replied as he reread the letter again. "I guess when I summoned you the magic used was detected and since I'm the only wizard within the area, they want me to 'cooperate'." That was basically saying Harry was guilty before being proven innocent. It was also giving him flashbacks of when Dobby tried to frame him for using magic. Again, he was blamed since he was the only one in Little Whinging who could use magic.

"It was not like you had any choice in the matter, Master," reasoned Saber. "Your life was in danger. I think self-preservation is much more important than obeying a law that would sooner have you killed than defend yourself."

"The world isn't a simple place, Saber," the bespectacled boy replied, dropping the letter. One of the things about the wizarding world he didn't like was the fact that common sense didn't seem to apply when it really needed to. That aside, Fudge was probably personally against him for daring to try and claim Voldemort had returned and that several of the Minister's important friends were in fact still active Death Eaters. "Indeed it isn't, Master. So, what will you do now?" asked Saber.

"Find a way to defend myself, I guess," shrugged Harry. It would be tough though. He had next to no idea how a wizarding investigation was carried out much less a court hearing if it went that far, which he didn't doubt it would. Add to that how obviously biased against him it would be with Fudge at the reins then things were going to get very difficult in the future.

"Perhaps I can assist you," volunteered Saber.

"Hm?" Harry blinked, looking up from his downward spiral of thoughts. "What do you mean Saber?"

* * *

**Malfoy Manor**

Lars sat in his room, looking over the numerous texts he managed to 'liberate' from both the Einzbern Family Library and Clock Tower on the subject of the Grail War. As one of the three founding families of the War, the Einzberns had a lot of knowledge on just how the whole thing started up. Clock Tower's knowledge of the subject wasn't as complete as the Einzberns' was, but it had lots more theoretical work done to it to try and figure out how to replicate it elsewhere besides Fuyuki City. It was all that theory work that the Americans put to use in their own attempts at a Grail War, but they ended up making a mockery with it in the end. Honestly, those incompetents had completely lost the Saber Class save for the Master who would be forced to Summon a Saber during battles, and not all of the Servants were actual heroes. One was Jack the Ripper as Berserker and the other was the fecking Black Death as Rider. And the Americans dared claim they had an official Grail War on their hands? Lars certainly didn't think so.

Right now, Lars was looking into why his Confoundus Ritual failed and instead triggered a new Grail War instead. The Dark Lord wasn't pleased that it failed and got Yaxley killed in the process, but since he still had a chance at the Grail still as one of the Seven Masters, he was willing to let it go. Since Lars was the only expert they had on the Grail Wars, he was allowed to still be alive without even torture since Yaxley's sacrifice brought out Berserker. An unexpected reprieve from a man not known for his restraint or his control over his temper, but Lars was certainly not going to complain about it. Still, he had to figure out even if the Grail War was won, where would it appear? It wouldn't do if the Dark Lord won the entire war but missed out on the Holy Grail because it appeared in muggle London and used up by some homeless piece of trash.

"_Can we kill anything yet Master?_" Rider's echoing voice sounded out from behind Lars.

The bastard Einzbern turned and glanced at the hooded Servant that was leaning against the far wall examining his sword like he hadn't just asked for bloodshed. It was the Servant's actions that made Lars doubt that he had gotten the strict line of what defined 'Hero' down properly since he had never heard of a Heroic Spirit being so bloodthirsty. Okay, so Anti-Heroes were allowed into the Throne of Heroes too, but the only kinds he had heard about were from the 5th War such as Medusa or Medea. They weren't bloodthirsty per say, but definitely not known for heroic deeds. They were more known for doing horrific things in the name of good…sometimes.

"We're not fighting yet Rider," Lars frowned. "Control yourself."

"_My collection is gathering dust. My sword craves blood,_" Rider retorted. "_Do not make me wait for very long._"

"You will do as you are told Servant!" Lars snapped back. "Know your place!"

Lars could feel the glare from his Servant from across the room. Still, the bastard Einzbern kept his cool. He had read the reports of previous Wars which Clock Tower managed to throw together from those who managed to survive. He knew that some Servants could be unruly and if the Masters had a weaker will, they could very well become the ones manipulated by the those they were supposed to be in control of.

"_Only if you remember yours,_" Rider spoke back in a most ominous tone. The statement was punctuated by him running his fingers across his blade. Lars knew from his time growing up in the Einzbern family that he was being threatened. Still, Lars also knew that so long as he had the Command Spells, he would be safe but he would also have to be incredibly careful on how to use them if or when the situation which warranted them came up. It seemed that Rider already didn't like him and without protection, would cut him down if he could.

Just another day in the life of Lars Von Einzbern.

* * *

**#4 Privet Drive**

**

* * *

**

"_Stupefy!_"

Harry was out of bed in a flash. He had just gotten to sleep after Saber told him of an idea he had in regards to the investigation Harry was about to be put through. Now he was suddenly under attack as someone began casting spells. Rolling away from his door and dropping to the side of his bed, Harry grapped his glasses and slapped them onto his face, preparing to face whoever it was that was attacking him…

SMASH!

"Bloody hell!" a female voice cried out.

Harry blinked, suddenly realizing that he wasn't alone in the room in the first place. Looking over to where Saber was seated while he slept, Harry saw that his black knight was missing. Daring to poke his head over the bed, he saw that the door frame of his room was effectively broken like something bigger than it had forced its way through rather than squeezing itself in. Across from his room, the railing which would protect people from falling over was missing, broken clean off. Down on the ground floor, spellfire was going off as Harry heard a number of jinxes and other disabling curses. Judging from the cries of those below, they weren't working all that well either.

Cautiously walking towards his door, Harry peered out to see what the bloody hell was going on and actually discovered a familiar face leaning over the rail, apparently trying to curse something down below, "Mr. Weasley?"

"Harry?" the redheaded father of seven blinked, glancing to see The-Boy-Who-Lived. "Oh thank Merlin you're all right! Just stay back! We'll deal with this!"

Under normal circumstances, Harry may have obeyed if it seemed that things were in hand. However, the bespectacled boy also knew that Saber was likely in the middle of all of it and likely might not stop until everyone was down. So, he ran up to the railing and looked down to the main hall. Sure enough, Saber was approaching a pair of people Harry had never seen before. One was a man who seemed rather ordinary looking save for his foreign appearance while the other was a woman with shocking pink hair. Both of them were sending several curses, jinxes, and other spells but no matter what they cast, all of the spells were just bouncing off of Saber's steel armour.

Behind Saber and clearly unconscious on the ground was none other than Alastor Moody, the retired auror who had been hailed as one of the best. Harry was quite willing to guess that Moody must have taken one look at Saber and decided that he was a possible threat and moved to stun him so they could interrogate him. It certainly fit with the man's paranoid tendancies. Saber quite obviously didn't aim to go quietly and was aiming to eliminate everyone so to protect Harry.

"Saber, stop!" Harry called down to the black knight.

Saber did indeed stop and glanced up to his Master, but keeping the two wizards in his sights, "Master, these assassins came for unknown reasons. They snuck inside the house before one tried to incapacitate me. I am eliminating a threat to your life."

"I know two of them!" Harry retorted. "The one who attacked you thought you were a threat to me! They aren't assassins!"

Saber glanced back at the pair in front of him, making both flinch as they felt his stare on them. Seeing that the situation was calm for the time being, Harry walked past Mr. Weasley and down the stairs so to approach his Servant.

"Harry, step away from that…thing!" said Mr. Weasley cautiously, following the young man.

"It's alright, Mr. Weasley," said Harry calmly. "Saber here is…harmless." Well, as harmless as a knight in dark armor could get. This was like déjà vu all over again when he told Mrs. Figg that Saber was his Servant and that he'd summoned him. "Saber, please stand down."

"As you wish, Master," said Saber obediently but he still kept his guard up.

"Harry, what's going on?" asked Mr. Weasley, confused. "Who is that and why did he call you 'Master'?"

"Mr. Weasley, a lot has happened," Harry answered with a weak grin.

* * *

A/N: Well, I felt like writing up a second chapter for this since I was particularly inspired by the concept. This is a progression of events as well as some of the activities of the participants as well as their interactions with their Servants. Obviously, some are having an easier time of it than others. Also, seems like the Lovegoods have stumbled onto a supposedly hidden truth which no one was supposed to know.


	12. Kamen Rider Chalice: Chapter 1

**I do not own Kamen Rider or Sailor Moon. Those belong to their respective creators and not me. So get over it.**

**Kamen Rider Chalice: Crystal City Chronicles**

**By Ten-Faced Paladin**

**CHAPTER 1: New In Town! Chalice Makes His Debut!**

Kyle groaned as he tried to get his head back on straight. He remembered being in his dorm room before some kind of pink light engulfed him. After that, he recalled grabbing onto a metal case before blacking out. At this point, he got the sensation in his body back, feeling the cold concrete ground below him. Daring to open his eyes, he discovered that he was indeed on a stone pathway. Next to him was the silver case that he recalled grabbing, but it was open. Looking inside, he spotted three familiar buckles. Two were silver with a clear panel on the front and were box-shaped. The third was green and bronze with a circular shape. A clear panel was jutting from the side, indicating that it could be inserted into the buckle.

"Buckles?" Kyle blinked as he looked at the three items. "These look like…the buckles from Kamen Rider Blade. Where did they come from?"

Scratching his head, Kyle looked deeper into the case to only find two more items inside of it. Both were cards with red backs and ornate designs on the front. One was of a mantis inside a jeweled pink heart while the other was of a human with a red heart inside of it. Kyle could instantly recognize them as the Category Ace and Category Two of Hearts: Change Mantis and Spirit Human. His main question was where were the other Rouze Cards?

"This is getting too weird for me," Kyle sighed as he shook his head. Packing the buckles into the case and slipping the cards into his pocket, he stood up and looked at his surroundings.

He was in an alley of some kind which was covered in shadows. It wasn't a very good place to learn about where you were. Shaking his head to get the final fuzziness out of it, Kyle headed out of the alley, and his jaw dropped.

He found himself looking at a crystal city. All of the buildings were either white or were covered in shining white crystal. Five crystal towers could be seen in the distance which seemed almost alive with a strange energy. In the distance in what seemed to be the very centre of this beautiful city, was a gorgeous crystal palace. It appeared almost as if the crystal jut grew out of the ground and people decided to live in it.

"Where did I land?" Kyle asked himself with a sense of awe. He had never seen such a beautiful city before.

Still shocked at the sight of the beautiful city, Kyle didn't immediately take notice of the people who were walking the streets. As he slowly became aware of them, he noticed that they were wearing clothes that were similar to what English nobles of the past would be comfortable in. All of the outfits were fancy and looked like something out of a Victorian age. However, Kyle himself was wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. He stuck out like a sore thumb.

The people walking along the cobblestone streets likewise began noticing Kyle. They gave him bewildered looks while others whispered to friends about something while glancing at him. A few were muttering about rebellious children and other such things. It really made the displaced university student feel like he was being talked about like a small child. It was more than a little insulting.

Walking along the streets, Kyle saw that English outfits weren't the only style of dress. People closer to his age were wearing Japanese school uniforms, but were colored white or gold like most of the other kinds of clothes. The people were also walking in almost exact paths, only breaking off when their destination made it necessary to move. Kyle kept almost bumping into people for walking too slow or too fast. All the while, more and more adults were whispering near him. A lot of it kept questioning about his upbringing or his parents. Apparently standing out was frowned upon by the people of this city.

"Red? My word, what kind of gaudy clothing do children wear these days?"

"Those pants hardly look respectable."

"His parents must be ashamed if he went out like that."

"Where are his parents? Can't they discipline him properly?"

Kyle rolled his eyes and snorted, biting his tongue to keep himself from saying a scathing comment. The gesture alone seemed to create more stares and whispering. However, he ignored it in favor of finding out just where he had ended up. A crystal city would have made the news no matter where you lived. He just had to ponder why he hadn't heard of it.

Ignoring the snorts from the people around him, Kyle continued on his way to try and find some information about his surroundings. However, that thought was interrupted by the sounds of an explosion and several dozen screams. Kyle's blood turned cold as the sounds hit him and he froze. The people around him on he other hand seemed to suddenly become panicked like he had never seen before. They screamed, yelled, and ran like they were chickens with their heads cut off or something.

Snapping out of his daze, Kyle charged towards the source. Considering that he had lost the rest of the Rouze Cards, he had a sinking feeling as to what the source of the commotion really was. Maneuvering around the masses of panicking people, Kyle finally managed to get clear.

In front of what appeared to be a group of stores, there was an Undead attacking several people. Dead bodies were already littering the ground with red lines around their necks, indicating that they had been strangled by something. The Undead itself was mostly green with black bits of armor on its face and other parts of its body. Its one arm was vines with thorns sticking out of them and more vines emerging from its body. Kyle easily recognized it from the Kamen Rider Blade series. It was the Category 7 of Hearts, the Bio Plant.

"Halt! In the name of the Queen!" a soldier dressed in silver armor cried as he and several similarly dressed men made a stand against the Plant Undead. They were all armed with spears and looked ready to fight.

The Plant Undead was unimpressed as it hissed at the men and began advancing on them.

"I said stop! In the name of the Queen!" the leader of the soldiers cried out a second time.

Again the Plant Undead didn't respond, it just continued advancing on the men. Several of the soldiers began quivering in the knees, honestly scared. Kyle watched the discipline of the men crumble. It was as if they expected the monster to just give up and submit just because they said so!

The Plant Undead hissed and lashed out with its vine hand, sending several thorny vines slithering through the air. That was too much for the soldiers as they began screaming and trying to get away. Some did, but others became trapped in the vines of the Plant Undead. The Undead hissed in pleasure as it began to squeeze the life out of the few soldiers it did catch. The remaining soldiers didn't even bother to save their friends as they abandoned their weapons and ran for their lives. Hadn't these guys dealt with violence before? They looked like they had stepped in on Jason killing a bunch of people, not a smaller monster simply choking people.

Reaching into his pocket, Kyle drew one of the two Rouze Cards he possessed, the Category Ace of Hearts, Change Mantis. If he really had the Joker Belt, then there was a chance that he had the Joker's abilities as well. Lowering the card to the slot which ran through the device, he slashed the card through with a cry of, "Henshin!"

"**Change!**"

Kyle then felt his body being engulfed in a black static-like energy which hid every detail. As he was completely engulfed, he felt his body begin to shift and change. His shoulders took the appearance of pads and what looked like torso armor seemed to materialize on his chest. His head became angular with two horns coming out of the top. The energy finally faded as Kyle's new form was revealed. The armor was mainly black and gold with the designs on it. His arm guards and boots were made of gray metal that had a crisscross design on it. The chest had red and silver markings on it while the helmet had a red heart for a visor. His mouth was covered by a silver mouth-guard. Kyle had changed into Chalice, the Mantis Undead. Otherwise known as Kamen Rider Chalice!

Dashing towards the Plant Undead, Chalice drew his weapon the Chalice Arrow. Gripping the handle for it, he raised his weapon before slashing downwards into the Plant Undead's back. The beast screeched in pain and stumbled forward; dropping the guards it had in its clasp. The men hit the ground, coughing and gasping for air as they looked up to see who had saved them.

Chalice tackled the Plant Undead and they both hit the ground. The Plant Undead reacted quickly, kicking Chalice off before attacking him with several vines which shot forward like bullets. Chalice rolled out of the way, letting the vines hit the road and penetrate it, showing just how strong the vines were. Getting to his feet, Chalice aimed with his weapon and pulled back his free arm, shooting several bursts of energy from his Arrow. The beams hit the Plant Undead in several spots, bringing more sparks and a few splashes of neon green blood. The beast screeched in pain and stumbled forward to attack once again.

"_Don't you ever quit?_" Chalice muttered to himself before he charged again, raising his Chalice Arrow.

The two enemies met and slashed at each other before running past one another. Chalice came to a stop and stood straight again. He grunted softly as he felt a wound on his arm open up, revealing green blood of his own. The Plant Undead didn't move for a moment, leaving witnesses to ponder its condition. Suddenly, the Undead groaned in pain before collapsing, releasing its energy in a large explosion which ripped through the air. Sighing, Chalice turned to the downed Undead and walked towards it. His wound was already beginning to close and the bleeding had long since stopped. Stopping at the Undead as the fires burned themselves out, Chalice saw that the Plant Undead's buckle had opened, revealing three runes which signaled its defeat. Reaching to his belt, he opened the case on the right side and drew out a Proper Blank card. It looked like a Rouze Card, but had no picture or text save for the chains which spread across the picture. Taking the card, he dropped it onto the Plant Undead. When the card touched the Undead, it began to spin while the Undead itself become covered in a green aura. As the card spun faster, the Plant Undead was sucked inside of it, leaving strange text and a picture of a plant to be revealed on the card itself before it flew back into Chalice's waiting hand.

"_Not bad,_" Chalice nodded to himself. His first run as a real Kamen Rider and he got the job done. "_Not bad at all._"

"Halt!" a voice cried, causing Chalice to look up. In front of him were the men whom the Plant Undead almost killed. They had all reclaimed their weapons and were pointing them at the Kamen Rider. They seemed a little shaky in the knees but if that was because of Chalice or their near-death experience no one could be sure. "You are hereby arrested in the name of the Queen for violation of the physical aggression laws!"

"_What?_" Chalice blinked. Did he hear that right? "_You mean I'm being arrested for physically fighting a monster and causing harm to it? Then how the hell was I supposed to fight it?_"

The men gasped and redoubled their stances as the leader spoke, "You just violated the profanity laws too! To answer your question, if you wanted to fight that monster, you have to fight with magic from a distance! Everyone knows that!"

"…_that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard,_' Chalice blinked, making the men gasp again.

"He's disrespecting the Queen's laws!" another soldier cried. "We have to arrest him!"

"I know!" the leader nodded before he gazed at Chalice. "You are hereby under arrest! Come quietly before we are forced to use unpleasant measures!"

"_You mean you'll actually use those weapons you have pointed at me? Or do you mean you'll try to punch me? I'd pay good money to see that happening._" Chalice chuckled. His opinion of these soldiers was that they were wimps. They were afraid to physically fight someone, they were afraid to swear, and they even seemed to be intimidated by his appearance alone. How these guys became soldiers he would never understand.

"Uh…Uh…okay," the leader of the soldiers gulped. "Men…advance!"

The soldiers began to advance on Chalice with their weapons pointed at him. They were slow and deliberate in their movements. To Chalice, it seemed that they were trying to intimidate him rather than actually attack him. Shaking his head, he looked at the Bio Plant card before he looked back at the soldiers before he got an evil idea. Removing his belt buckle, he attached it to the hollow in the centre of the Chalice Arrow. Holding the Bio Plant card to the Rouzer, he slashed it through.

"**Bio!**"

An image of the card appeared in the air before it was absorbed into the Chalice Arrow itself. The men stopped their advance with trembling knees, realizing that he wasn't intimidated in the least and was actually about to attack them. Rearing back his weapon, Chalice lashed forward. From the tip of the weapon, a long green vine extended before wrapping around the pack of men. When the vine was secure, Chalice cut his end, letting the men stay wrapped up. Looking at the fear on their faces, Chalice found it funny to see that they were wimping out so badly.

"_You wimps,_" Chalice chuckled before he turned and walked away from the frightened soldiers.

* * *

Inside of a crystal throne room, a man and a woman sat on a pair of thrones. Light shone inside the room, making it appear so majestically, like the throne rooms of the kings of old. In front of the thrones were several women who were bowing respectfully to their Queen. They all looked different, but they also had common parts to their appearances as well. The only common thing that the bowing women had was the fuku-like outfits that they wore. The king wore a dark tuxedo which contrasted the shining white hall while the Queen wore a flowing white gown that made it obvious as to her position.

"What about this incident in the marketplace?" the Queen asked her subjects.

"A Youma attacked quite suddenly," a blue-haired woman answered.

"How many people must be treated for energy drain?" asked the king.

"None your majesty," a black-haired woman replied. "You see…the Youma killed everyone it could get its hands on."

That answer made even the king and Queen gasp in shock. In their kingdom, murder and death by unnatural means was unheard of and considered to be one of the worst crimes ever to be committed. Even the odd monster which appeared in their kingdom would steal energy instead of lives. Why this monster decided to do just that was beyond their understanding for the moment. The Queen recovered from her shock first, allowing her to ask her next question, "What has become of the beast?"

"A man dressed in strange armor appeared and defeated it," a brunette answered. "However, he broke your physical aggression and profanity lawns in the process. When the guards on scene attempted to arrest him, he found their attempts amusing and trapped them in a plant-like binding before leaving."

"How could he find their attempt amusing?" asked a short-haired blonde indignantly. "Those soldiers are trained to handle any radical. They were trained in several tactics which would allow them to handle anyone from the city."

"Obviously he wasn't intimidated," the Queen frowned. Pondering for a moment, the majestic woman made her decision. "Here are my orders. Should that man appear again, I want him detained. He has broken my laws and I will not tolerate that. When you have him, I wish to learn everything he knows about these murdering monsters and anything else which may be significant."

"Yes your majesty," the women nodded.

* * *

Kyle yawned as he sat in a public park, letting the silver case rest on the grass. The trees and grass looked real enough, but the crystal artwork he could have done without. He hadn't been in the city for a full day and he was already sick of all the crystal around. Hadn't these people heard of any other colors or what? Still, he didn't have much room to complain since he didn't have a clue as to where he was or what he should do. People were still staring at him like he was a punk just because of the jeans and t-shirt he was wearing too. That was just making him mad, but he didn't care all that much about what some snobs thought. It was just too bad that the city seemed to be full of them.

"You there!" a voice barked out. Kyle froze.

Turning in the direction of the voice, he saw two guards dressed in silver armor walking towards him. Heaving a sigh, he stood up to face them. If push came to shove, he could turn into Chalice and fight his way out. In the meantime though, he could just let these guys say their peace.

"Can I help you?" Kyle asked.

"Why are you not in school?" asked the first guard who was acting tough. Kyle might have believed it if he hadn't seen the other supposed tough guards wimp out so badly in front of the Plant Undead.

"Uh…" Kyle blinked. That was it? These guys were rounding on him because he wasn't in school.

"Demitri! Can't you see?" asked the second guard. "Look at his clothes! Obviously he is one of the poor people and cannot afford an education!"

"Hey," Kyle frowned. Were all people in this city so snobby?

"Hmm. You're probably right," the first guard nodded. He looked Kyle in the eye. "You're in luck then. Thanks to the Academic Placement Program, all youths are able to get a proper education. Please come with us." Kyle then felt his arm yanked by the second guard as they headed down the cobblestone walkway. He only had enough time to grab his case before he was so rudely pulled away. Kyle was dragged further along until he and the guards were standing in front of a building which looked like a school built by an ultra-modern architect. It was pure white with decorative silver metal on the windows. The front doors were large and apparently made out of oak. He didn't get much time to examine it before he was brought inside.

Inside the school, everything was painted white much like the rest of the city. It seemed like one of those upscale universities which one would hear about like Harvard or other such schools. Brought through the halls, Kyle was at last put through a pair of double doors. Sitting at a front desk was a woman who was wearing a white business suit with glasses over her eyes. Her hair was short and blue and she seemed just so familiar for some reason.

"We're sorry for bothering you Education Minister," the first guard spoke. "But we found this young man here not in school and we believe he couldn't afford it."

"Oh dear," the woman frowned. "Well, don't worry. We have plenty of space at our school. The Academic Placement Program was made so that everyone could get an education regardless of their income or social position. You're very lucky that we found you."

"Uh-huh," Kyle nodded, still as confused as ever. Was he going to school for free or what?

"We'll leave him in your capable hands," the second guard bowed before he and his partner left the room. That left Kyle and this Education Minister alone. The woman didn't seem to say anything as she eyed him from top to bottom. It was as if she were trying to discern something just by looking at him. She seemed to stare for a few minutes longer before she smiled gentle and took Kyle by the shoulder.

"Judging by your age, I would say that you should be at the university level," she explained. "We have several openings available. You seem to be the creative type too judging by that spark in your eyes. So, I'll have you placed in the Arts classes. I'm sure you'll love it. A few physical education courses can't hurt either. We can't have you getting out of shape in the pursuit of true beauty."

Kyle blinked at the woman in shock. She was actually choosing his courses for him based on how he looked. True he did like creative work, but to be told he had to do it was kind of insulting. Still, he was apparently getting schooling for free so he probably shouldn't complain. If it turned out as dull and tiring as those wimpy guards were, then he might have something to actually complain about. Being ushered through the hall by the woman, he was brought to what he assumed to be a classroom. Quietly opening the door, the woman gestured him inside. To his surprise, there was no actual class going on. Instead, all of the students were in chairs with helmets over their heads and blinking lights. At the front of the room was another woman dressed in an outfit like the Minister's. The only real difference between the two was that her hair was black and tied in a ponytail.

"Ah, hello Minster," the woman waved. "A new student?"

"That's right," the Minister nodded. "He's on the Academic Placement program and I thought the arts could use another student so here he is." She motioned Kyle forward to face the apparent teacher.

"Well, it's good to meet you," the teacher nodded. "Please take a seat where you like and I'll begin the program with you. I hope we'll get along well."

Kyle was still as confused as hell about what was going on. Still, he didn't have much reason to say no to anything he was being offered. Back home he was already in considerable debt thanks to how much money he needed to go to school. However, he felt weird with this learning program that was going on. Walking through the rows of students, he sat down in an empty chair, allowing the helmet to cover his eyes. He heard a beeping noise before light began blinking. That was all Kyle got before a sudden onrush of information began flowing into his brain. Beethoven, Picasso, the great music and artistic masters all became knowledge in his head. It felt like his brain was going to explode. His eyes sparkled from the lights of the helmet and his limbs felt like lead during the whole process. He couldn't move!

"Gah!" Kyle cried out. Putting all his will into his hands, he brought them to the helmet which was pumping so much information into his brain and removed it with a sharp yank. The flow of information just stopped as soon as it started. Gasping for breath, Kyle leaned over the chair, trying to get the information straight in his brain. However, it was quickly fading and dimming into obscurity.

"What's wrong? Why did you suddenly shut it down?" asked the teacher as she and the Minster gazed in confusion at Kyle. "You won't learn anything if you don't sit through the whole program."

"Do…does everyone learn like this?" Kyle asked bluntly. "I mean…it felt like my head was going to explode."

"You mean you…" the Minister began in confusion. "Oh dear. Your parents must be radicals then. You poor boy. Usually children are the ones to have trouble learning this way. Students at your level shouldn't have a problem." She walked over to Kyle and looked at him gently. "I know it's new and confusing at first, but you'll get used to it soon enough. It's not difficult and you'll find that this knowledge will help you on your future career. I can promise it."

Suddenly, several musical tones sounded off and the remaining students began deactivating their chairs and getting up. Several of them paired up and walked out of the room as if nothing had happened. Kyle stared and watched them go in deeper confusion. He felt like his head was going to explode again just by seeing people actually be used to such learning techniques. Shaking his head, he got up as the Minister took stride next to him.

"Next is physical education," she explained. "This might be more your speed so I hope you enjoy yourself. If you'll excuse me though, I have to catch up with some paperwork. If you get lost just go to a terminal and type up your name. It will tell you where you need to go for your next class."

Kyle watched her go before he looked around for one of the terminals she spoke about. They were easy enough to find, seeing as they were actually connected to the walls. Going up to one, he found that it was a touch screen kind. There were several functions which included a class calendar, upcoming events, a map, and student information. Tapping the icon for student information, Kyle got a list of every student in the school. To his surprise, his name was already in the K section even though he hadn't even given his name yet. How had they gotten it? Did they download it from when he was stuck to that chair or something? Filing that away for later, he brought up a list of the courses the Minister had selected for him and found that he was due for a Phys. Ed. class down on the first floor.

"Might as well see what the big deal is," he shrugged as he began heading down to where the class was.

As he was walking, Kyle had to consider the place he was in. They were incredibly efficient. They managed to get his name through that learning program that they stuck him too. And learning by downloading information directly to your brain? That was something that he had only seen sci-fi movies. Having it actually happen to him was rather creepy. Also, it seemed that his entire career was picked out for him by the Minister. She thought he would be some kind of artist or something. Well, he wanted to be an author but she was pushing him towards art. It reminded him of some novel he read in high school about the people being forced into conformity and not having a clue that it was happening. Only this place was a lot easier on the eyes.

Finding the gym, Kyle walked through the doors to see several students stretching and getting ready. At the front was another woman who was wearing a coach out fit with short red hair under a cap. She looked over at Kyle before she picked up what looked like a white and black gym uniform and beckoned him over. Doing so, Kyle walked up to the woman before she passed the uniform to him.

"Here you go," she spoke. "Nice to see a fresh face around here. Get changed quickly and meet us back out here. Changing room is over there," she pointed to a door at the sidelines of the large gym.

"Right," Kyle nodded as he headed for the changing room.

Coming back out, Kyle stood with his fellow students, ready for the class to begin. I eventually did when the tones from before chimed off again. The gym teacher then began her lesson by putting the students through a number of aerobic exercises. In fact, that was all they did for the entire class. It was one exercise after another. Kyle felt himself being bored out of his skull by it. Looking to other classes which were using the gym, he saw that they were all doing the same. No one was playing a sport of any kind; just doing exorcises which were aimed to put the body into good shape. Kyle just ticked away the minutes as he put the effort into his workout. Thankfully, the teacher eventually ended the class and sent the students to the showers.

Kyle heard the students chatting about all the great exercise they had and how they were losing weight recently. It made him shiver, had he landed with a group of body enthusiasts or something? Shaking the thought off, he just stripped and headed into the showers. He needed the hot water to calm his throbbing head at the moment. Thankfully, soap and shampoo was provided already inside the showers. Going through the motions of cleaning, he tried to keep his mind off how much his head hurt.

"Hi! You're the new student, right?" a voice asked next to him. A rather FEMALE voice.

Kyle's eyes widened in shock before he turned to see who was talking to him. To his shock and horror, a girl was showering next to him. She was definitely attractive with an hourglass figure and pale smooth skin. Her hair was a deep violet as she ran her fingers through it to check for tangles. Her chest looked like a large handful, but Kyle wasn't trying to stare at it. Really, he wasn't. She seemed completely relaxed, as if she wasn't next to a naked guy showering in the same room with her.

"Ulp!" Kyle gulped as he tried not to stare at the figure next to him. "Y-yeah. Say, am I in the wrong changing room?"

"Nope," the girl answered with a shrug. She then seemed to take a note of concern as she ran her soap across her body. "You seem upset. Is something wrong?"

"Uhhh," Kyle groaned, trying hard not let anything stick out. He looked around for some kind of avenue of escape. However, he then noticed something he hadn't before, being the first one in the showers. It was a mixed bathing shower. Both males and females were all in the same room bathing like it was nothing. Some pairs were even chatting and talking without a care in the world. Some who were obviously couples were even showering under the same showerhead! Not necessarily boy/girl pairs either.

"Just…just not used to showering in public I guess," Kyle shrugged.

"Oh, it's a little new I guess. Nothing exciting though. It's just our bodies," The girl answered. "My name's Amethyst Murasaki."

"Kyle Jones," the now extremely confused and frustrated young man answered.

"Nice to meet you Kyle," Amethyst smiled. "Say, are you looking for a girlfriend?"

"H-Huh?" Kyle gaped. Was this the appropriate place to talk about such things?

"Well, it's just that initial partnerships usually complement each other," Amethyst explained. "I heard we had a new student coming so while I went to the bathroom, I took the time to look up any new students who arrived today and I found you. I found that we were both majors in art so I figured that we should be compatible. Most guys I meet in the art programs want girls in business programs."

"…you only want to go out with me because we're both in art?" Kyle asked stiffly.

"Yes. That's the first step to finding love according to the Love Ministry," Amethyst answered with a nod. "The partners must have compatible goals. The second step is a trial partnership to see if that compatibility crosses over into other things. Finally, if the compatibility holds true, then the partners can become an official couple. After being a couple for a predetermined number of years, they can apply for marriage and find love."

Kyle blinked at the explanation, totally stunned by it all. Love was part of a ministry? You had to follow a bureaucratic path to find what they defined as actual love? No matter what way you tried to spin it that was just pure bullshit to him. You couldn't just scientifically define love for any purpose. Sure, you could define the word in a dictionary, but you couldn't just say what love is and what wasn't. Amethyst seemed to be under the impression that by finding a person who seemed compatible on paper and being a couple long enough to get married that was actual love. Kyle just thought it sounded stupid.

"So are you looking for a girlfriend?" asked Amethyst hopefully.

"Didn't think about it," Kyle answered as he shut the shower off. His brain was hurting and so were his gonads from all the female flesh. Cold showers just weren't helping. "I've got to get ready for my next class. Maybe we can talk about this later." Waving absently, Kyle walked off to the change room, hoping that no one would notice that he was still a little stiff in a certain area.

Getting his clothes on as fast as he could, Kyle exited the change room trying not to relive what he had seen. He didn't want to walk funny down the halls. His mind was a whirl with emotion, trying to figure out just who the people thought they were in the ministries that they could actually control how people fell in love. Were the citizens here just stupid like a herd of sheep to think that the ministries had the power to determine such things? Didn't the people want to find love on their own? Then again, if people were raised in this environment, then they would probably believe that the ministries had all the answers since they were raised to believe such. It still seemed stupid to Kyle. Then again, these people had never dealt with violence or swearing before so of course they had to find some way to determine love in a peaceful and logical way.

Walking through the main courtyard of the campus, Kyle's head suddenly began buzzing as if a dentist was drilling into him. Clutching his head from the pain and closing his eyes, he tried to soothe it. What he got were numerous visions swimming through his head. Flashes of a dark crimson, fins, hammerhead-like protrusions, and water passed before his eyes. When the vision had ended, Kyle gasped when he realized what he had seen.

"Undead," he gasped. Looking around, he felt a pull coming from the Phys. Ed. sections of the school. With his destination set, Kyle grabbed his case of Rider Systems and dashed for the school. Barreling down the halls, he brushed past people who gasped in shock while others tried to get out of his way. As he got closer to the pool, he heard screaming and found several people in bathing suits running away from the area in question much like the citizens had before when the Bio Plant had appeared. He was getting close. Finding a set of double doors, Kyle burst through them to walk onto a scene of carnage.

The pool was massive and probably Olympic sized with illumination coming from lights below its surface. However, the light was cut off when the odd floating body passed over them. Several bodies of swimmers were visible drifting across the surface of the water. None of them were moving and had obviously drowned. Looking across the water, Kyle spied a dark shape emerging from the water. It was a dark crimson color with fins coming from the elbows. Its hands and feet were webbed and it was wearing a leather vest with belts tied across the thighs and shins. Its head was hammerhead shaped with its face emerging from below the hammerhead. The face itself was covered with a skeletal black metal mask which looked like it had a barnacle or two stuck to it.

This was the Category 3 of Hearts, the Chop Head, otherwise known as the Hammerhead Shark Undead.

Kyle frowned as the Undead emerged from the water and snarled at him. Looking to his own waist, a red light shone before the Chalice Belt emerged. He dropped the silver case to the ground before he reached to his pocket and produced the Ace of Hearts. Holding the item up, he cried out while bringing it through his Rouzer, "Henshin!"

"**Change!**"

Kyle dashed forward as the static field engulfed him. As he moved, his body shifted and changed. Reaching closer to the Hammerhead Undead, the field burst, allowing Chalice to emerge with his weapon at the ready. The Hammerhead Undead was likewise ready as he clenched his fists and charged at the Kamen Rider. Both fighters collided with each other, Chalice digging the edge of his Chalice Arrow into the Undead's shoulder while the Hammerhead Undead scratched its claws across his Chalice's chest. Both leaped away with a shower of sparks and some pain dealt to each other before they began running at each other again.

Chalice slashed widely at his opponent, but the Hammerhead Undead ducked underneath it and rolled along the moist tiled floor. Getting up, the Hammerhead Undead lunged forward and hit Chalice in the back with a headbutt.

"_Agh!_" the Kamen Rider of the Hearts cried out as he hit the ground and slid across the soaked tiles. Struggling onto his back, he spied the Undead coming closer as it drew a large ring of what looked like shark teeth. Chalice reacted fast and aimed his Arrow at the monster before letting several volleys fly. The attacks dug into the Hammerhead Undead's flesh, bring splashed of neon green blood which splattered onto the pool and forced it to drop its weapon. Managing to get to his feet, Chalice detached his buckle and attached it to his weapon. He then drew the only Rouze Card he had which was suited for battle and slashed it through.

"**Bio!**"

The image of the card was absorbed into the Rouzer before Chalice slashed wildly again. This time a vine emerged from the end of his weapon, wrapping around the Hammerhead Undead tightly.

"_Let's go for a swing!_" said Chalice as he bent his knees and then pulled his arrow, tugging the Undead along. He then swung the monster into the wall with enough force to crack it before letting the Undead drop to the ground. He withdrew the vines and took aim with the Chalice Arrow, firing several energy arrows at the Undead. It let out screams of pains as Chalice used the distraction for a heavier attack. Said heavy attack came when Rider charged at the Undead and jumped up to perform a drop kick that slammed into its head. The beast hit the tiled floor, making it crack from the force.

"Stop this immediately!"

Chalice halted from where he was about to attack the Hammerhead Undead. Looking to where the voice had shouted, he spotted a woman standing at the doors of the pool area. She was wearing what looked like a fuku with a blue bow and a really short skirt. Her boots were knee high and were likewise blue along with her short hair. A tiara was on her forehead to complete the look. She was definitely older than what he recalled, but there was no mistaking this woman.

"_Sailor Mercury?_" Chalice gaped.

"You will both cease this violence immediately!" demanded Sailor Mercury, "And please, remain where you are and do not show aggression, or else I will be forced to neutralize you."

'_Does she really think that will work?_' thought Chalice as the Hammerhead Undead charged at the Rider. Chalice brought his weapon up to do a counterattack.

"I said stop!" Sailor Mercury cried as she dashed towards the battle.

Chalice and the Hammerhead Undead promptly ignored her as they continued their battle. Blows which could have severely injured or killed regular humans were exchanged between the two combatants along the pool. Chalice blocked a kick to his midsection before he used a return kick into the Hammerhead Undead's knee making it collapse to the tiled floor. Standing above the monster, Chalice raised his weapon to unleash the finishing blow. Now he would have sealed two Undead and…

"_Shabon Spray!_" Sailor Mercury suddenly cried.

A flurry of bubbles hit Chalice in the chest before it spread into the thickest cloud of mist he had ever seen. Stunned slightly, Chalice looked down to see where the Hammerhead Undead was supposed to have been hiding. Instead, he found the Undead in question missing. A sudden splash echoed through the fog, telling Chalice that the Hammerhead Undead had taken to the water to try and escape. Still, the fog was so thick he wasn't sure where it was going for an avenue to escape from. While trying to find out where the Hammerhead Undead had gone, Chalice spied Sailor Mercury coming through the mist.

"Now, stop this senseless violence or I shall use more direct methods," she frowned, reminding Chalice of how his mother would stare at him sternly when he did something bad when he was younger.

"_It's getting away you idiot!_" he snapped, making the woman gasp in shock. "_If it gets out and goes on a killing spree in this school, it'll be your fault!_"

Dashing past the stunned Mercury, Chalice almost desperately looked to see where the Hammerhead Undead might have chosen to get out of the pool. Mercury's fog was still in full effect so seeing anything more than a few feet away was difficult. Still, Chalice knew that he had to try. If the Hammerhead Undead got away, it would just start up another killing spree someplace else with more lives being snuffed out in the process. It had to be stopped here before that happened and the Kamen Rider would be damned if he let some naïve woman in a fuku stop him from doing his job!

Suddenly…a splash of water…

Chalice turned to the source of the noise and just barely spotted a shape coming out of the water. It was hard to tell, but it definitely wasn't human. That had to be the Hammerhead Undead! Gripping the Chalice Arrow, Chalice charged with a roar towards the emerging form. As he got closer, he found that it was indeed the Undead which he had been fighting. The beast had indeed been emerging from the pool to escape Chalice. However, hearing his charge, it looked up to see Chalice himself in front of him and swinging his weapon downwards. The blade of the weapon slashed through the Hammerhead Undead in a shower of sparks and green blood. The Undead fell back with a screech into the water before an explosion sent pool fluids flying in all directions.

Sailor Mercury gasped at the sight, unused to seeing so much violence. Charging towards where the armored man stood, she looked to see the creature he had been fighting drifting through the pool, motionless. Its belt buckle had snapped open to reveal three strange runes underneath. The armored man saw the creature groaning in the pool as it drifted along the surface before he opened a panel on the side of his belt and drew what looked to be a card of some kind. With a careless toss, the card flew from the man's hand and made contact with the monster. To her shock and scientific curiosity, the monster became engulfed in a green aura before actually being sucked inside the card. She thought she could see an image of a hammerhead shark on the card before it flew back into the man's hand.

"_That was close,_" Chalice sighed as he tucked the card into his case. Looking up, he spotted Sailor Mercury walking towards him with that same motherly stern look on her face. She probably meant business, but Chalice just couldn't find the heart to really take her seriously. If anything, it was almost pathetic in more than a few ways. Returning the Chalice Arrow to where he hid it while not in use, the Kamen Rider waited for the woman to reach him.

"Now, I must ask you again to please stop this senseless violence," she frowned. "You are in violation of the Queen's physical violence laws and have already broken her profanity laws in the last incident. I am afraid I must bring you to a secure location for an interrogation."

"_You're joking, right?_" Chalice scoffed. "_Listen, these monsters don't care who the Queen is, who her servants, are, or what position they are in and to be honest, neither do I. They are not going to stop just because the Queen said so. If anything, they'll just kill you because you're in the way. The only way you can stop them is by fighting them and frankly, I don't think anyone in this entire city has the guts to even get near one._"

"If we must fight, then we will do so," Mercury frowned. "Although we are a peaceful people, we will defend ourselves."

"_Like your guards did?_" Chalice snorted. "_Shooting magic from a distance isn't fighting. In fact, several of these monsters probably won't even notice it. If they did, they would just go at you."_

"But the Queen's laws-!" Mercury cried.

"_Her laws are wrong!_" Chalice snapped. "_My god are you really this dumb? Look in the pool!_" He gestured to the dead bodies. "_Are we seeing the same things? Your laws mean shit against these things! Magic means nothing! Peace means nothing! If you keep following these fanatical laws, your people are just going to be lambs to the slaughterhouse! There are still fifty of these monsters left and they aren't going to just stop because the Queen says so! In fact, they might just try to kill her because she's in the way!"_

Mercury was trembling in the face of Chalice's anger and his disrespectful words towards the Queen. How could one man be so full of rage and anger? What had she done to incite it? She was just following her Queen's laws. Surely the Queen's wisdom would see them through this crisis. After all, she was the one who brought them this age of peace and happiness. Granted, these monsters were powerful, but this man was wrong to think that sinking to their level would defeat them. There was a proper way of doing things and they would do so. It helped them defeat the enemy before and it would help them defeat these monsters.

"Who are you?" Sailor Mercury finally asked out of her shock and contemplation.

"_I am Kamen Rider Chalice,_" Chalice answered before he turned to the door. "_I suppose we'll see each other again soon enough. Next time though, try to help me rather than stop the fight. We'll save more lives that way._"

With that, Chalice walked through the door, grabbing a silver case as he went. Mercury blinked as she watched him go. She knew she should have arrested him, but he had caught her off guard and used her hesitation to escape. It was obvious that he was a radical, one of the most outspoken of his kind as well.

* * *

"**Spirit!**"

Chalice slashed the Spirit Human through his belt and returned to his human from. A scowl was on his face from his interaction with Sailor Mercury. He knew of her through old Sailor Moon episodes, but she seemed like…such an airhead. She was supposed to have been this super smart girl in the series. What the hell happened to her now? She was acting like she didn't know what to do in a violent situation and seemed to keep forgetting what the Hammerhead Undead had done to those people in the pool. She was so committed to following laws that it seemed that was more important than stopping the Undead and saving the lives of innocent people. It was like…

…Order was the supreme force.

* * *

A/N: This is an idea I wrote up a while ago as sort of an offshoot of Forgotten Rider. Kyle Jones ends up landing somewhere else entirely than Wave Country and all of the Undead save for two are released.

All hell will break loose.

Kamen Rider Chrome convinced me to post this so I decided to see what you guys think here in Idea Farm. It used to be just one gigantic document and only was recently split into chapters. I don't really think it's my best, but I'll let you guys decide how good or bad it is.


	13. Kamen Rider Chalice: Chapter 2

**I do not own Kamen Rider or Sailor Moon. They belong to their respective creators and not me. So with the disclaimer out of the way, enjoy!**

**Kamen Rider Chalice: Crystal City Chronicles**

**By Ten-Faced Paladin**

**CHAPTER 2: A Gathering! Making New Friends & New Allies!**

Kyle's eyes widened as he made it to the courtyard. Now he knew where he was! He was in Crystal Tokyo, the supposed utopia that the Sailor Scouts were hoping to achieve in the series! Ruled over by Neo Queen Serenity and Neo King Endymion, Crystal Tokyo was supposed to be the rebirth of the old Moon Kingdom, bringing happiness and peace all over the system. It was supposed to be like paradise, but all societies had to have a competent police force or else dissenters would get out of control. However, it seemed that the only policing forces were the guards and assumingly the Sailor Senshi and obviously they were unused to any amount of violence happening and almost clueless as to what to do about it. It was almost as if violence was something of the past that was only spoken of inside of history textbooks or other such things. Something people had heard about, but never witnessed for themselves.

Kyle was an avid fanfiction reader and he had seen a few renditions of what Crystal Tokyo was like. A few of them were nice, sort of like King Arthur's kingdom of Camelot or something along those lines. Others were a little grimmer. Oh, there was peace and happiness, sort of. Neo Queen Serenity was fanatical about order in those fics and in doing so, she wiped chaos and negativity off the face of the planet, turning the people into content cattle with no real drive of their own. They just lived their lives doing things the Queen deemed good and that was it. That was what made those fics so depressing; Neo Queen Serenity had become what she had fought so hard against, a dictator. The only difference between her and the likes of Wiseman and Beryl was that she promoted positivity and order while they promoted negativity and chaos.

"I've landed smack in the middle of that situation," Kyle realized as he rubbed his eyes. Now he knew why the guards from before used intimidation tactics, why there were profanity laws, why Sailor Mercury seemed so attached to the laws of the Queen. Violence and profanity was considered negative and outlawed by the Queen. The only fighting was magical because that was what the Senshi used. The Sailor Senshi were Serenity's agents of order and they used magic so using magic was considered positive and allowed. At least the Queen wasn't a hypocrite in that way.

Still, the Undead were a major force of chaos in their eyes because of their ways of battle and survival of the fittest. The Queen and her soldiers were going to try their hardest to stop them all. Not that it would help. They could capture an Undead, but not destroy one. Heck, probably Serenity herself had a chance of sealing one. The Undead were the first force of creation, created by Kami-sama Himself. They were older than even the Silver Imperium Crystal which Serenity got her power from. Kyle had some doubts of how effective it would be against the Undead themselves.

* * *

Sailor Mercury looked over numerous files, trying to discover more about the mysterious Kamen Rider Chalice. The Queen was deeply disappointed and saddened to hear that another monster had appeared and took more lives for no reason. She had reinforced her previous decree to find and detain this man named Chalice for his complete lack of respect for the laws of Crystal Tokyo. He may be defending people from the monsters, which may earn him leniency, but there was a proper way of doing things and he needed to learn that. Personally, Mercury felt that if they could purify Chalice, he would become a most excellent warrior and ally for the crown.

"Did you find anything yet Mercury?" asked Sailor Mars as she walked into the archives where Mercury was doing her research.

"Nothing concrete," Mercury replied with a disappointed sigh. "Kamen Rider Chalice has never made any appearance or even a glimpse until the appearance of that plant Youma which went on a rampage."

"So absolutely nothing," Mars sighed in frustration.

"Well, I did find something which may be of some consideration," Mercury replied as she pulled up an article which told on an ancient means of fortune-telling known as Tarot cards. "The motif on Chalice's armor is that of a heart, but he calls himself Chalice. I cross-referenced the name and the mention of hearts and this is what I got. Apparently, hearts in a regular playing deck are part of the cups suit in tarot cards, otherwise known as a-"

"Chalice," Mars frowned as she eyed the article and the cup cards the pictures depicted. "But…aren't there also three other suits?"

"Yes, Spades, Diamonds, and Clubs in a regular playing deck," Mercury nodded before she brought up three more images. "Spades are the swords in Tarot decks, Diamonds are the coins, and the Clubs are the wands."

"So if there is a common theme here," Mars frowned as her eyes widened in surprise. "Then we might be expecting three more like Chalice to appear!"

"That's what frightens me," Mercury agreed. "Four violent people like them running around? It sends shivers down my spine."

"That's why we have to capture Chalice now before his allies appear," Mars replied. With this new information in hand, she left the archives to collect a force which would capture Chalice.

* * *

Kyle sighed as he entered the dorm room which was supplied to him by the Academic Placement Program. At least he didn't have to worry about a place to stay now. Setting his case to the side, he examined the room. It looked like a simple dorm room to him: a closet, a bathroom, a bed, and a computer. Everything a student needed. On his bed was a simple white uniform which most students wore around the school. Kyle suspected that he wouldn't be allowed to wear his normal clothes to classes for another day lest he face punishment. Sighing, he tossed the uniform into the closet and lay down on the bed, trying to think about his situation.

The Undead were still out there. They had to be sealed again no matter what lest they go on a rampage and start killing everyone in the city. He also didn't have faith in the Sailor Senshi's abilities in stopping them. Well, maybe if they were the Sailor Senshi from the Dead Moon or Sailor Stars arcs maybe they would be able to do it. These Senshi who have apparently gotten soft after so much peace and contentment with no drive to improve? Not a chance. The Undead were primed for battle since day one and they weren't going to sit back and let it go to waste. They would fight whoever they wanted whenever they wanted.

A knock at the door shook Kyle out of his thoughts. Getting up and going to the door, he opened it. To some surprise, he saw that Amethyst was at the door looking as perky as ever. At least she was clothed this time. She was wearing what looked like a white girl's outfit and her purple hair was done up in a braid with the front of her hair framing her face and resting over her forehead.

"Hi!" she smiled. "Hey, me and some friends were going to go to the park for some fun and I wanted to know if you would like to join us. I mean, it would be a little odd for me if I didn't bring a friend. I first thought of you, so here I am!"

"Is this another attempt to see if we're compatible?" Kyle asked suspiciously, remembering her talk about the Love Ministry…among other things.

"A little," Amethyst smiled shyly. "I mean, you left so fast in the shower and I didn't get to talk to you again for the rest of the day. When my friends told me they were planning on some entertainment, I thought I could bring you."

Kyle pondered the invitation for a moment. No doubt the definition of fun was different between Amethyst and himself. Still, he could use some friends in this strange place and Amethyst was definitely easy on the eyes if anything else. The sight he had seen in the shower was definitely nice to see, even if Kyle would not talk about that sort of thing out loud. There was still the Undead to consider, but having found that he had senses of their attacks like Hajime did in the series, he wasn't too concerned about missing an attack.

"I suppose I could come," Kyle shrugged. "When do you want to leave?"

"Right now if you can!" Amethyst smiled brightly.

Kyle scratched his head. After fighting two Undead in a single day, he was feeling more than a little tired. Still, Amethyst had come all this way to invite him so it would be a little rude to deny her. Besides, meeting new people might work out to his advantage. He wouldn't be friendless if the people Amethyst wanted to bring him to meet weren't snobs like the rest of the people inside the city limits. He had more than enough of dealing with those kinds of people.

"I guess I can go," Kyle shrugged.

"Great!" Amethyst smiled. "You don't have to change! They'll love what you're wearing."

Grabbing Kyle's hand, Amethyst yanked him out of the door, giving him barely enough time to shut his door behind him. He didn't question where Amethyst was taking him since he had doubts that the girl had a bad bone in her body. Heading across streets and through the odd park where green was a dominant color rather than the usual white which made up the majority of the buildings. Amethyst was a girl on a mission and what that mission was, Kyle didn't know.

Eventually, the pair reached what looked like a forest inside a rather large plot of land. There were no guards or fences so Kyle assumed that it was public property. Still, he just had to know what he was looking at. Everything he had seen so far had a function to the society he had been planted in. Curious, he voiced his question to Amethyst who just smiled at him, "It's a forest preserve. Here even people who lived in the city their entire lives can enjoy the gifts of nature. My friends and I hang out here a lot. I hope you like it too."

Entering the forest ground, Kyle and Amethyst passed through several trees. It didn't escape Kyle's notice that all of the trees were in rows with only open spots in a circle. Some were occupied with people who had all sorts of gadgets he assumed to be made for camping. However, it seemed to Kyle that it just brought home outside. It wasn't camping; it was just changing the scenery of the home. It just reaffirmed to him that the people in Crystal Tokyo were wimps in almost every sense of the word. Ignoring them, Kyle and Amethyst continued on with their trek.

Walking deeper through the rows of trees, Kyle and Amethyst entered one of the clearings which were littering the area. A small campfire was lit, looking perfect and burning pre-cut pieces of timber. The people around the fire though the same age as Kyle and Amethyst, but looked somewhat different. At the far right of the small clearing was a young man who wore brown pants with a brown vest over his white school shirt, but left unbuttoned. His hair was red and short with a wild spiked look to it. He had an easy smirk on his face and seemed a little childish in a round sort of way.

Second in the group was another young man, but he left his white button up shirt wide open with a dark blue shirt underneath it. His hair was short, but a deep shade of blue and rather styled. His clothes were rather neatly pressed and didn't look like they had been able to attract the dirt or grass that he was sitting on. His face was more angular and mature than the redhead. He looked a little stoic, but his eyes weren't as cold as the rest of him seemed. The instincts of Chalice seeped over to Kyle enough to see that.

Leaning against the stoic guy was a short-haired blonde with a loving smile on her face. She looked as mature as the stoic guy with the figure to match. She wore a schoolgirl outfit like every other student. She had long socks on, but kept them bunched up at the bottom to make an appearance like legwarmers. Kyle had seen the look on schoolgirls in Japanese cartoon shows. She had a slight tan on her skin, making her hair seem almost golden. She turned her head slightly to reveal a long ponytail at the back

The third was another girl who likewise wore the girls' uniform, but had left it unbuttoned to reveal a black tube top underneath. She had long green hair and had black gloves on. She also wore black high heels. She looked very…womanly, was the word Kyle thought of when he saw her. Her skin seemed a little pale in comparison to her bright green hair, but it was a look that suited her. She seemed a little stand-offish, but at least willing to accept his presence.

Lastly with his arm wrapped around the waist of the green-haired girl was a fellow dressed in the proper school uniform with his tie hanging loosely around his neck. His hair was pure white and reached down to his jaw. It seemed to be completely natural. He had a strong jaw line and natural good looks. All in all, the kind of guy you'd expect to see on the cover of a magazine or something. Still, he seemed to be willing to accept Kyle's sudden appearance next to Amethyst.

"Hey, who's this guy?" asked the redhead. "I thought this was going to be a small get together."

"He's the new guy if what I heard is correct," the blue-haired boy observed. "I would suspect that Amethyst wanted to make him feel welcomed. Am I right?"

"That's right!" Amethyst smiled. She then gestured to Kyle as if she was showing off a prize like on some game show. "Everyone, this is Kyle Jones. He is the new one at the school and I thought we could give him a nice welcome."

"Amethyst, you know we don't conform to what the majority of the population does," the green-haired girl sighed as she leaned deeper into her man's hold.

"Well…I just thought it would be nice," Amethyst mumbled shyly, suddenly becoming less confident with herself.

"Now, now," the white-haired boy waved, disarming the situation. "We're not here to cause trouble. We're all here to relax and I think that having a new face around might be interesting. Still, Amethyst introduced him to us so I think it's fair she introduce us to him. If you would Amethyst?"

"Right!" Amethyst smiled, getting her bubbliness back again. "Kyle, these are my friends. First on the left is Rubeus Kurenai. Next is Safir Aoi and his girlfriend Topazu Kiiro. Finally is my Nee-sama Esmeraude Midori and Nii-sama, Demand Shiroi."

"Hi!" Topazu smield with a wave of her own.

"Pleasure's mine," Kyle smiled as he took a seat around the fire with Amethyst at his side. "So, what do you guys usually do out here anyway?"

"Anything we want," Rubeus smirked. "We're on our own, we're independent, we can even do 'radical' things if we so dare." He reached into his pocket and produced a set of playing cards. Kyle thought it must have been ironic that they play a game with the four suits when he was busy fighting monsters who were part of those suits. "I say we sit here and enjoy some good old-fashioned gambling for a while. I need some extra spending money."

"I know better than to play with you!" Esmeraude pouted. "You cleaned me out of every cent I had the last time!"

"A harsh lessoned we all learned," Demand chuckled as Rubeus frowned.

"How about that guy who fought the Youma today?" asked Topazu. "He showed up at the marketplace first and then in our own school! Everyone says he fought the monsters with his bare hands and even swore when the Crystal Guards tried to arrest him for it."

"Ha!" Rubeus laughed. "About time someone stood up to those goofs. They don't know aggression from a hole in the ground! I'm just glad to see that someone in this whole city has some balls to fight a Youma themselves rather than letting the Sailor Senshi do all the work while they get killed off like sheep."

"Amen," Kyle sighed. "People ran from that thing like chickens with their heads cut off. They didn't stop for anything, even to see if there was anyone left to save. It was like they thought if they weren't a soldier, they didn't have to be good citizens and help others."

"A mindset that a majority of the city agrees with," Demand sighed. "If you aren't someone in a career who helps others in situations like that, you generally shouldn't worry about that sort of thing. I think it's something that the ruling monarchy put out in the city to keep vigilantes down so to keep order in the city."

"That's hypocrisy," Kyle frowned. "The Sailor Senshi all started out as vigilantes when they first got their powers. I say it's more like they don't want anyone to become more popular with the citizens than them. If that happened then it might start turning people against the monarchy's ideals of contentment and order."

"How'd you know that?" asked Rubeus.

"Just a little research," Kyle shrugged, but Safir's gaze stayed pointed at him.

"That's a good point," Topazu nodded. "I heard news reports that the man's name is Kamen Rider Chalice and that he's wanted by Neo Queen Serenity herself for breaking her laws and even talking so disrespectfully about her laws when he faced Sailor Mercury."

"Hmph!" Esmeraude huffed. "The monarchy gets all stirred up because someone speaks his mind and isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. It figures."

Kyle began feeling at home as he and the other students spoke to each other about complaints they had about the monarchy. They all seemed to agree that the physical aggression and profanity laws were a load of crock, especially against the 'Youma' that would kill people rather than simply drain their energy for their own purposes. Rubeus was a staunch supporter of fighting physically since it was as good as magic in his eyes. Topazu, Esmeraude, and Amethyst all preferred the free speech idea since they hated how laws like the profanity laws existed. Demand and Safir kept their silence now and then, but they agreed that some of the laws that Neo Queen Serenity had in her doctrine were a little unrealistic. What made it worse was that people were following them. The group of friends easily talked into the night about their concerns and/or complaints about Crystal Tokyo.

When Esmeraude brought out drinks from a set of packs that Kyle had noticed before, Kyle learned that heavy alcoholic drinks like beer and whiskey were outlawed and the lager she had managed to find was in fact smuggled into the city which she bought through a bootlegger. The only alcohol allowed was in the form of champagne or wine, like the kind served at royal functions or other high-class parties. Demand explained that Neo Queen Serenity held galas quite frequently for the nobles of Crystal Tokyo and such light alcoholic drinks were always served. Of course, Kyle was beginning to think that Neo Queen Serenity was trying to turn the city into her own fairy tale kingdom as well as a pinnacle of order. Anything that would be found in a romantic era kingdom was permitted while everything else was apparently outlawed. Violence, bad words, things that made people mean like booze sometimes did, it was all not permitted. Something Demand voiced out at one point.

"In that case these monsters must be a huge punch in the face," Esmeraude snickered, hearing Demand's comparison. "They kill, they destroy, and they don't take prisoners."

"Not to mention that the knight in shining armor doesn't act at all knightly," Amethyst nodded with a naughty giggle.

"No time to follow the rules of chivalry when there's peoples' lives at stake," Kyle sighed.

"Exactly!" Rubeus laughed. "What's the point in posturing and making a scene unless it's going to distract the enemy and let you get him from behind? Otherwise it's all just one big stupid waste of a sneak attack!"

Kyle nodded his agreement when he was suddenly hit with another scream inside of his skull. The world in front of him changed at he saw the movements of another Undead about to attack. This time he saw the night sky, trees, large leathery wings, people below, bright lights near them. It all pointed to an Undead that could fly. However, very few of them could actually do that much so it somewhat cut down on the list of suspects. The last section of the vision faded away revealing a circle of people around a campfire which was almost too bright for normal eyes to take. Still, it was coming closer than ever before.

"Kyle?" asked Amethyst, seeing her new friend flinch. "Are you okay?"

"Am I?" Kyle gasped as he looked around. An Undead was approaching and he had to be prepared to fight it, but where was it coming from? Standing up, he looked into the night sky to try and see just where this flying Undead was going to attack from.

"Hey, you feeling okay?" asked Rubeus. "Was Esmeraude's booze too strong or something?"

"I think we all may have had too -" Safir began before he was suddenly interrupted.

"SCREEEEEEEEE!"

A black shape dove down from above and swiped at the fire as it landed on the ground, snuffing the light as it screeched angrily. In the light of the moon, Kyle could see the image of the monster. It was donned in black armor which looked like muscle cords with a black mask which revealed large fangs. Its hands looked like large bat wings which were partially folded up. It had a slight Mohawk on its head and its feet were confined in black leather with claws sticking out. The ornate belt it was wearing also signaled what the monster was. It was without a doubt an Undead.

"Category 8 of Diamonds," Kyle growled to himself. "Scope Bat."

Safir heard Kyle's words and turned to look at him curiously.

"You just crashed the wrong party buddy!" Rubeus growled as he pulled out a pair of gloves which had metal knuckles. Yanking them on, he dashed towards the Bat Undead before rearing back and sending a powerful punch forward. The Bat Undead actually heard the attack coming and dodged the blow before backhanding the redhead across the face. Rubeus flew backwards and skidded across the grass before coming to a stop near a tree.

"Rubeus!" Amethyst gasped in shock.

"Everyone get back!" Demand shouted, drawing what looked like a wooden sword from his own pack. Esmeraude had produced a metal fan which had bladed edges hidden underneath green fabric which matched her hair. Topazu had drawn senbon needles while Safir had managed to produce an extendable staff. Amethyst herself had likewise brought a weapon, a slingshot which she kept loaded with what seemed to be marbles.

The Bat Undead wasn't intimidated as it saw the group produce weapons. If anything, it just made it eager to fight. Taking in the sight of the enemies, it suddenly screeched loudly into the night. Almost immediately, flapping noises could be heard before seemingly hundreds of bats began flying through the trees, swarming the area. Amethyst shrieked while Esmeraude tried frantically to keep them away. Safir and Demand shielded their eyes while Topazu kept her cool. The bats even went for Kyle, but he didn't wait for them to try and distract him while the Bat Undead went for the kill. Concentrating, there was a red flash on his waist which turned into his Joker Belt. Drawing the Ace of Hearts, he slashed it through with a cry of, "Henshin!"

"**Change!**"

The static field erupted over Kyle, forcing the bats to flee from the energy. His body shifted and changed inside the field before he re-emerged as Chalice. The Bat Undead stared at the opponent before him before screeching loudly and charging. Chalice drew his weapon before likewise going for his opponent.

With the bats gone, the group of students could see clearly again and what they saw made their jaws drop. Esmeraude was the first to speak as she managed to gasp out, "He…He's Chalice?"

"Wow," Topazu gaped as she watched the two fighters go at each other.

"What the hell?" Rubeus grumbled as he began getting up from his prompt flight.

"Kyle?" Amethyst blinked in shock.

Chalice rolled underneath a swipe from the Bat Undead before slashing sideways with his Chalice Arrow. Sparks flew from the impact against the Bat Undead's chest. The beast screeched in pain before lunging at him with its hands outstretched. It slammed against Chalice and pinned him to a tree with its hands pressing against the sides of his head. Grunting from the pressure, Chalice kneed the Bat Undead in the side, making it grunt. In pain and angry, it tossed Chalice to the side. The Kamen Rider grunted from the impact before he got to his knees, seeing the Bat Undead approach. He was about to try some Rouze Cards when suddenly, needles and marbles collided against the head and chest of the Undead, making it screech again.

"Take this!" Topazu frowned as she and Amethyst fired more of their ammunition at the monster.

The Bat Undead screeched and dashed for the pair. However, Demand and Safir were quick to respond. Demand went high by smacking the Undead in the head with his wooden sword while Safir went low by knocking its feet out from under it, making it hit the dirt. The Bat Undead attempted to get back up again and swipe at Demand, but Esmeraude put a stop to that by slashing its shoulder, forcing the Undead to roll on the ground in pain.

For his part, Chalice was surprised that humans were doing so well against an Undead. Then again, if a guy who sold Takoyaki could harm an Undead, A Category Queen of all things, with a hot frying pan, then a bunch of students who seemed to have some skill in weapons could probably hold their own for a little while. Even so, they wouldn't be able to beat it and it would only take one slip up for the Undead to take advantage of and kill them all in its rage. He had to end this fight fast! Taking his Rouzer, he snapped it into place on his Chalice Arrow before drawing the only two Rouze Cards he had which was suitable for battle.

"**Bio! Chop!**"

Both cards released energy versions of their images as they were slashed through. The Bio Plant image was absorbed into the Rouzer while the Chop Head Image moved into Chalice's free arm. As the Bat Undead managed to get back up, Chalice lashed out with his weapon, summoning a vine, and wrapped it around the Bat Undead, keeping it still. With his target stationary, he charged at it with his free arm in a chop position. Bringing his arm back as he got closer, Chalice lashed out with a chop which dug into the abdomen of the Bat Undead, making it gag out green blood that splattered out of its mouth and onto Chalice's shoulder, indicating an internal injury.

The Bat Undead stumbled backwards, gasping for breath after the attack. Its body then just seemed to fail as it fell backwards and unleashed an explosion. The students covered their eyes as they shielded themselves from the light and heat, but the fires died down soon enough. Chalice examined the groaning form of the Bat Undead and saw that its belt had opened up, indicating that it had been defeated and could be sealed. Reaching to his belt, he drew a Proper Blank before tossing it through the air. The card landed on the Bat Undead before turning it into green energy and sucking it in. The card then flew back to Chalice's hand, depicting a bat in the picture rather than just chains.

"_I suppose you want an explanation,_" Chalice guessed, not even looking at his new friends.

"Not here," Safir answered. "Back on campus. Your dorm."

"_Fine,_" Chalice sighed before drawing the Two of Hearts and slashing it through.

"**Spirit!**"

Engulfed in the static field yet again, Chalice emerged as regular Kyle Jones once more. Looking to his friends, he gestured them to follow him as they collected up their packs. It was time to give some answers.

* * *

"Any clues?" asked Sailor Mars as she and Sailor Jupiter supervised some Crystal Guards who were examining an abandoned building where a few dead bodies were apparently stored. The bodies were all in a pile like they had been dropped like trash. All of them likewise had two holes in their necks where the blood was apparently drained out of them. More than a few of the guards had passed out or gotten sick at the sight. It was only because of the experiences the two Senshi had in their lives that prevented them from doing the same.

"Nothing concrete," Jupiter sighed. "All we really know is that these people were drained of blood before being left here like droppings. Markings on the rafters suggest that something was hanging up there, probably whatever did this."

"Such senseless violence," Mars sighed. "Why are these monsters doing this? What could they possibly gain by killing innocent people? Surely they know how much more valuable people are when they are alive!"

"They're monsters. They don't think like we do," Jupiter replied. "I suppose that's what makes them monsters though."

"Amen," Mars agreed.

* * *

"So…just what are those monsters anyway?" asked Topazu as she and her friends relocated back to Kyle's dorm, wanting answers to the situation they had just found themselves witnessing. All of them were waiting for Kyle's response as he placed five cards with rather ornate artwork onto the table.

"They're called Undead," Kyle answered as he placed the Spirit Human down last. "Where they came from and what they want is a rather long story."

"We have time," Demand replied.

"Fine. You asked for it," Kyle shrugged. "The Undead were created by the Almighty Himself, the first living beings to be placed on this earth. Each of them was a representation of one of His creations. They only had one purpose, to fight. The last one standing had their progeny to populate the world. If you hadn't guessed, it was the Human Undead who won or else we wouldn't be able to be here doing what we do."

"Woah," Amethyst gasped in shock. "That's incredible!"

"Then what are they doing here and now if they're so damn old?" asked Rubeus with a frown.

"Well, I remember being hit with a teleportation spell before waking up here in Crystal Tokyo," Kyle lied. "I woke up next to the case where the cards were kept and only found the Two and Ace of Hearts so I assume that they were released by the spell itself. Believe it or not, that all happened today of all things. One day and already I have three Undead sealed away. I think I might have a knack for this if anything else."

"How many Undead are there?" asked Esmeraude.

"How many cards in a playing deck?" Kyle retorted.

"Fifty-two," Rubeus replied.

"Fifty-four, including the two Jokers," Kyle corrected. "That's how many Undead there are. With these five here, that number went down to forty-nine, but that's still a lot of them left. Of course, things aren't going to get much easier with the Sailor Senshi and their Crystal Guard trying to hunt me down just because I used physical violence and curse when I'm agitated. In fact, they might just make it worse."

"I heard you got mad at Sailor Mercury when she tried to help," commented Safir.

"She didn't try to help, she tried to stop the fight," Kyle frowned. "She cared more that we were using physical violence than stopping the monster that killed some of the students in the school. Of course I'd lose it on her. I thought she was one of the smart ones but it seemed so much peace and lack of growth turned her into an airhead just like all of the other Senshi." This commented caused some small laughter to ripple around the group.

"Do you have to seal them all yourself?" asked Demand.

"Maybe not," Kyle replied before producing the Blade, Garren, and Leangle Systems from his silver case. "These three buckles can produce a suit of armor similar to mine which can allow regular humans to fight against the Undead. However, they can't be used yet."

"Why not?" asked Rubeus, frustrated that he was so close to joining in the fight, but still so far away.

"Because I need the Category Ace of Spades, Diamonds, and Clubs to make them work," Kyle replied with a sigh. "It's not something I'm looking forward to since they're some of the strongest Undead in the bunch. I'm hoping to get a few more Rouze Cards into my arsenal since my weapon allows me to draw the power of the cards to use in attacks. That's what I used to beat the Bat Undead. The power of the Hammerhead and Plant Undead came in handy."

"Amazing," Safir whispered in curiosity as he examined the Scope Bat card. Just over an hour ago the monster within the card was attacking them. Now it was trapped within such a small item which Kyle could use as a weapon against further Undead.

"So tell me about you guys," Kyle finally asked. "I mean, ever since I got here all I've found are people who are scared of violence, scared of swearing, and are basically the biggest bunch of wimps I have ever seen. What makes all of you so different?"

"Well," Demand replied nervously as he seemed to become rather embarrassed. "The reason is that all of us are rather distantly related to members of the Black Moon Clan. You know, the criminals banished to Nemesis because they refused to be purified like the rest of the world was when Crystal Tokyo was founded."

"I've heard," Kyle nodded, recalling Sailor Moon information he read about. It was one of the hints he had seen that Neo Queen Serenity was becoming a little fanatical about her regime of order and peace. It was probably one of the first signs of it happening, even thought maybe not everyone caught onto the hint.

"Well, because of our exposure to the Jakokusuishou before it was destroyed, we had some extra negativity in our bodies," Demand explained. "When that negativity was removed after our ancestors defected to Earth, were just…remained the same. We don't seem as inclined to order as Neo Queen Serenity would prefer her subjects to be, but we aren't as negative as the clan was back when the Death Phantom tricked our ancestors into attacking a much younger Crystal Tokyo."

"So in all, you guys are a balance between positive and negative," Kyle pondered.

"Yes," Demand nodded. "Unfortunately, we've been branded as radicals most of our lives because of how we act, talk, and think. Not many people really want anything to do with us. We follow the laws and such in public, but some of them we tend to question a lot. Some of them just don't make any sense whatsoever. Of course, other things we tend to see as blessings in one form or another."

"Like the guidelines of the Love Ministry!" Amethyst chirped. "Now I know what steps to follow to get a boyfriend of my own!"

"You're the only one who likes that you know," Esmeraude commented.

"Nee-sama! How mean!" Amethyst pouted. "Not everyone can find their soul mate so quickly like you and Nii-sama did!"

"I guess I'm just lucky," Esmeraude purred as she leaned against Demand lovingly.

"You don't have to rub it in Nee-sama!" Amethyst pouted.

Kyle smiled as he watched the two girls bicker. Somehow, he had found a place where he could relax. Still, he had to wonder. The Undead never attacked so fast in the series. Was it because they couldn't find anything else to do or was it because of something else? Still, three Undead in one day, any more and he might begin to drop.

* * *

"_So he sealed the Bat, did he?_" a voice chuckled inside a dark place. "_I'll never understand why he wants to protect these sheep. They don't even qualify as human. We'd be doing the world a favor by wiping these fools out. Still, if nothing else, he's an interesting foe. Not one day in possession of the power and he knows how to use it so well. I wonder where he learned it all from._"

Walking along several dead bodies of what appeared to be salary men, the figure looked out a window at the nighttime Crystal Tokyo, looking at it with disgust. Peace? That was an illusion here. Happiness? The people didn't know what being happy was about. They were just content. Order? Well, there was that, but only that. The ruling party claimed that they had brought a kingdom of peace and happiness. No, what they created was a fanatical empire with self-righteous wording. They were just like any other two-bit conqueror. They just got away with it. Well, if his plans worked out then things would definitely change.

* * *

A/N: Part two of the idea farm edition of the Kamen Rider Chalice idea. I hope you guys enjoy it. Again, it doesn't feel like my best but here it is anyway. I know not everyone will enjoy this version of Crystal Tokyo but people seem to have a split opinion on how it turns out so I decided on the bad way for the sake of this fic. For referance on the behaviour of the people, try watching Demolition Man starring Sylvester Stallone. That's what inspired this version of Crystal Tokyo.


	14. Fate Extra System Error

I do not own Fate/Extra, Fate/Stay Night, or any other title created by Type-Moon. I am only writing about this for fun and not for any kind of profit. So don't anyone get it into their heads to try and sue me when I already put this disclaimer up!

**Fate/Extra: System Error**

**By Ten-Faced Paladin**

**Chapter 1: System Login**

I opened my eyes to view the world around me. The sky was dark and filled with stars were littering it like diamonds. Staring at them I admire their glow before I manage to achieve the desire to see more around me. Below me is shrouded mist, looking downright endless as I idly peered at the clouds which I swear I seemed thick enough to support actual weight rather than simply sit there and look pretty. Ahead of me are three massive arched windows that looked like they were from a church, decorated with numerous circles with some kind of designs in them. Rather than actual glass though, the windows looked like they were made of lines of light with absolutely no filling.

Where was I?

How did I get here?

Who was I?

"_Your story has now begun._"

The voice booms, but at the same time it sounds soft. It also feels like it is coming from all around me, but at the same time directly in front just beyond what I was capable of seeing.

"_Before you can write it though, you must choose a vessel of your power._"

Something compels me to look up and I see seven of the stars begin shining in the sky. They twinkle as if trying to communicate with me before they started to fall down, aiming at the ground which no doubt existed beneath the mist. The stars flew down like cotton drifting through the air, not looking like falling chunks of doom either. As they drew closer, I saw that they were the roughly the size of baseballs. Each one sparkled brightly but none of them seemed to outshine the other.

"_Choose_." The voice boomed.

I looked to each of the several stars and tried to think of what to do next. I reached out to the first of the stars and when my fingers touched it, the light dissolved to reveal what looked like a simple card out of a tarot deck. It depicted a knight holding up a sword.

"_Servant Saber. The first of the three knight classes. Balanced in all areas and hailed as one of the mightiest of the seven. I foresee a woman with golden hair who bravely wields a unique blade._"

I draw my hand back from the Saber card. Curious as to the others, I reached out for another. Like the one before, the light vanished to reveal another card, this one depicting a woman holding a bow with an arrow arched back.

"_Servant Archer. The second of the three knight classes. Masters of projectiles and fiercely independent at times. I see a stoic man clad in crimson robes._"

Interesting. I looked away from the Archer card and picked another star which was on my right. This time, the star vanished to reveal a card depicting a wizened old man in a robe holding a staff and a book.

"_Servant Caster._ _Master of magic which is ancient and powerful. Perceived as the weakest of the classes. I see a magical fox woman filled with vitality and emotion._"

Tempting, but for some reason I pulled back and reach for another star. This one brought forth a card depicting a gangly man with a large sword and a wolf's head.

"_Servant Berserker. The mad Servant who trades sanity for power. Often the most difficult Servant to control. Beware the black knight who is filled with remorse._

Intimidating. I turn my attention to another star, with only three left and picked one at random. The card revealed a man in armour who was riding on a chariot.

"_Servant Rider. Master of beasts and mounts alike. Their artefacts are not to be underestimated. Stand proud next to he who captains the black ship._"

Odd. I reach to the second last star and watch as it reveals a card detailing a man with a large hat and a long spear in his grip.

"_Servant Lancer. Last of the three knight classes. The fastest and most agile of Servants. I see the child of a sun god through this path._"

Weird. I look to the last star and touch it. What comes out is a card depicting a man dressed in black with sharp daggers and a skull mask.

"_Servant Assassin. The master of silent killing. The most difficult to battle fairly. Beware the decadent queen who fills this role._"

I draw my arm back and consider what I should do. I had to pick one of them or else I was just going to hang there forever. Still, which one to choose? The voice made them all seem powerful but what was I choosing them for?Which one would be the best one for me? I guess if I wanted to be safe I could pick the ones like Saber who the voice said was the best, but Berserker was likely strong too. Lancer and Rider both sounded quick and might make any trials easier. Assassin and Archer on the other hand would be good for sneak attacks. Then again, I was likely able to do anything if I had Caster. For all the perks though, I had to pick one.

I guess I would pick…

**ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!**

What? Huh? What was happening?

There was a flash and suddenly everything I could see was glazed with a kind of static which made the world seem fuzzy. My body froze as if locked in place and I was snapped from the soft haze my mind was in to be transferred to a state of panic. I tried to move, but I couldn't! What was happening?-! Did I do this? What was going to happen to me?

**ERROR! ERROR! ERR-!**

**SYSTEM ERROR CONFIRMED! SECURITY MEASURES ACTIVATED!**

**PROCESSEING…**

**ERROR LOCATED: DOWNLOADING NEW SOFTWARE**

**REPAIRS INITIATED**

**ERROR REPAIRED**

**CONTINUE PROCESS**

The static which polluted my eyes vanished, returning the comforting magical scene of the night, clouds and windows in front of me. The haze which covered my mind returned, making me feel lethargic and tired. The adrenaline which I felt a moment ago vanished in the haze of sleepy security. I looked ahead at the seven cards in front of me. Right, I still had to pick one of these cards in front of me. I raised my arm to reach for one, but then a light caught my eye.

Looking up, I saw an eighth star descending down towards me like the other seven had done. It came to a slow stop in front of me, slightly closer than the other cards as if it were trying to catch my attention. Curious, I reached out to it. My fingers touched the shining surface and like the others, this one revealed a tarot card. The surface of this card depicted a man with long hair who was simply skin and bones chained like a prisoner.

"_Servant Avenger. The wild-card class. This Servant will emulate the qualities of another so no two will be alike. Expect a man who holds a keen eye and believes knowledge is power._"

I draw my arm back again and observe the eight cards which are in front of me. I had so many choices, so many paths to walk on. How was I to choose? Sighing softly, I gently reached out towards the cluster of cards and made my choice. My fingers caressed on the surface of the Avenger card, making the air around it ripple. The other cards vanished as if they were the mist below me while the Avenger card began to shine brightly in front of my eyes.

And all went white…

* * *

**DAYS REMAINING: 0**

**MORNING**

I open my eyes and find myself walking towards school. It's a sunny day and there aren't any clouds in the air. All in all, it was the perfect day to go out and do something but all I could really feel the urge to do was go to school. Looking ahead, I see a crowd of students at the front of the school. The boys are wearing high school uniforms which are coloured gold and have the crest of the school on the breast pocket. The girls were wearing the same kind of jacket, but with a gold skirt rather than pants and a blue bow tied onto their collars. The boys' uniform matches mine, obviously pointing out that I'm going to the same school, Tsukimihara Academy.

The students act lively, but for some reason they seem so…false. I don't know how else to say it but they people at the gates seem more like stand-ins or temporary actors. They can't stand out in any way even if they tried. They are merely the moving background to the true characters who are the main characters. But…they still seem lively? How could they be false? They were standing right in front of me, proving they were real. Yet when I looked at them, it was like they were simply black and white people who just followed the same schedules like it was programmed…

…thinking about it made my head hurt. Trying to pursue the thought just made the pain worse.

Drawing closer to the crowds, I try to see what was causing everyone to crowd around the school gates when I knew that they should be open. Managing to push through the crowds, I saw a student in a black male outfit standing outside the gates checking them all one by one. He has short black hair and small round glasses. I recognize him immediately. His name is Issei Ryuudou. We're friends. He's the president of the student council. You can always tell who's on the student council since members always wear black uniforms as opposed to the standard gold. I always wondered why that was…but I never seemed to get around to asking…

Looking in my direction, Issei notices me and waves me over. I approach, but doing so causes another bolt of pain to cut through my head. Issei appears to be just as bland and colourless as everyone around me despite his smiling face and how his features were what I would consider human.

"Hi there," he greeted me. "Wonderful weather we're having isn't it?"

"Um…" I frowned, trying to get my thoughts in order despite the dull pain in my head.

"Why the look of surprise?" asked the student council president. "We announced at the last assembly that the council will be taking this month to strictly enforce the rules."

There was an assembly last week? Where was I then? Come to think of it, what was I up to last week?

…ugh…stupid headache was acting up again.

Did Issei really have to say this to me? I already knew it. He had said it everyday to every person. I swear it was like he had been pre-programmed for his role as student president.

Another shot of pain spiked through my head, making visibly flinch with the sudden onrush. Nobody seemed to notice.

Issei certainly didn't seem to notice my slight discomfort as he kept talking, "First, let me check your student I.D. I shouldn't need to remind you but your student I.D. should be on you at all times."

The pain in my head vanishing for the moment, I remove my PDA and allow it to synch up with Issei's. On the screen was my face with brown hair which was cut short in a typical male fashion. My data quickly came up next to my image. I was a student in the class 2-A, I was seated near the back, my teacher was Taiga Fujimura, and it even had my grades marked down in that data. Most prominent of all was my name marked on the spot next to my picture.

Riku Ayase.

That's right…I was of mixed heritage and it showed in everything from my out-of-the-norm brown hair to my name. My birth name was actually Rick, but the pronunciation in Japanese made it sound like Riku. Fortunately, this was a day and age where my heritage wasn't a problem for anyone with a pair of working brain cells. Still, I didn't bother to correct anyone on the pronunciation since it helped me fit in better with my peers.

"Great," Issei nodded, seeing my information. "There's no telling when an emergency might happen so its best if you keep your I.D. on you at all times."

Right, right. Could we get a move on? It felt like I had done this a million times before and it was grating on my nerves.

"Now for the uniform check," the president continued, just like clockwork. "Collar, check! Pant hems, check! Your socks, check!"

Screw this! The feeling of endless repetition was starting to make me queasy. I didn't have the time or the patience to deal with the student council's endless preaching about the adherence to the rules! Shoving past Issei, I began a grumbling march towards the school with my classroom set as my destination. I didn't need to be reminded once again of just how boring and repetitive this machine-like world was!

"And now for the contents of your schoolbag," I hear Issei speak. Blinking at his lack of admonishment towards my actions, I glance back to see if he had moved on. "Textbooks, notebooks, pencil case. Not even a whiff of contraband. Even your nails are cut and you have a sensible haircut. Quite remarkable. You are indeed a perfect example of a Tsukimihara student."

Rather than admonish me for shoving past him or even noticing that I did it, Issei was continuing his inspection as if I were still standing there. He was even going through the physical motions of handing back my schoolbag when I never even handed it to him in the first place! This wasn't right! No one was even noticing that he was talking to air! There was something really wrong here and I was the only one who seemed to notice or even give a damn!

This had to be a dream. I had to do something and wake myself up.

* * *

**MORNING - MIDDAY **

I grew increasingly agitated as the day progressed. Going through the motions of the day was like a compulsion. Watching Taiga-sensei trip and fall, hearing Shinji whine about the new kid Leo who would had obviously become more popular than he was. I just sat through it all, feeling this yawning void of emptiness, futility, and exasperation enter my body. As the feelings grew, so did my nausea and headaches. It grew so bad that this static overtook my senses, dulling everything. It messed with my sight so badly it seemed everyone around me was literally black and white with only a few exceptions, notablyTaiga-sensei, Leo, and Shinji.

I glance to the side and spy Shinji Matou. He wears the same uniform as me, but he's modified it to make it look cooler, mainly by leaving the jacket open, sleeves rolled up, and collar of his shirt undone with a silver chain necklace. He has wavy blue hair which looks like it was windswept, but obviously faked. He's good looking and smart, which draws him a lot of attention from the ladies who always come to him for help with problems they have. Of course, he's always snide and talks down on them saying things like it's only natural that peons go to those who are naturally better for help before chiding them for being dumb. Of course the guy isn't as smart as he likes to think. He's gotten questions wrong in the past but whenever someone calls him out on it he throws a tantrum and blames everyone else for distracting him and making him answer wrongly. Responsibility was antithesis to him. If there was ever a textbook example of a spoiled brat, it was definitely Shinji Matoh. He seemed to consider me his friend since I was 'unique enough to be noticed by superiors, but boring enough to remember my place'. I think he just considered me his sidekick to make himself look better in comparison to when he wanted the ladies' attention.

At least I've never added two plus two and came out with five.

Leonardo B. Harwey, or Leo as Taiga-sensei said we could call him, was like a mirror opposite to Shinji. He wore an orange version of our school uniform with the jacket oopen to reveal a vest underneath and also wore gloves and high-class boots. He had short blonde hair and green eyes, looking European in his overall looks. He was both handsome and intelligent, which instantly converted many of Shinji's fangirls. However, he was also humble and very friendly. He happily helped his classmates out with any subjects they were having difficulty with and didn't lord the fact that he was better than they were at anything, something Shinji loved to point out any chance he got. The guy was for all intents and purposes, a prince as far as any of us would concern ourselves. None of us but Shinji could really say anything bad about him.

There was something which made him seem…strange to me.

That strangeness only amplified when he stood up in class without even asking if he could.

"Miss Fujimura," he spoke up, sounding polite and cordial as always but then turned towards us as he acknowledged all of us. "And all of my fellow classmates. It's time for me to leave. We will probably never meet again, so I wish you all well."

The pain in my head spiked at his words…something…was wrong…what…?

Pain…out of…place…

…help…?

Leo said some more words to Taiga-sensei, but I was somewhat out of it by this point so I couldn't make them out. Once he finished the sentence though he just seemed to…fade away. The static thickened in my eyes, making Shinji appear that much more colourful compared to everyone else around me. The blue-haired boy made a snide remark about Leo I couldn't catch but didn't seem too concerned about the disappearance. No one else in the room seemed to have taken any concern with it either. Heck, not even the teacher seemed to really care about what just happened! One of her students vanished into thin air and all she does is tell us to open our textbooks!

Something was seriously wrong here! Couldn't anyone else see that?

…god my head hurt.

* * *

**MIDDAY - EVENING**

The final bell rang for the day as the dipping sun filled the classroom with orange light. Taiga-sensei has said her goodbyes and has left us to our own devices, clubs, and whatnot. The other students milled about like nothing was wrong, but I could see that every damn thing was wrong! Their black and white bodies all show them to be flat and meaningless, like they are made just to sit there and make small talk, go to clubs, or just leave the school for home. I myself on the other hand still feel queasy, feel pain from my head, feel uneasy, empty, and increasingly frustrated. The static in my eyes from Leo's departure only continued to get worse, making me feel I was borderline blind despite how I was still able to see.

What was going on?-! The whole world felt like it was unravelling and no one else was noticing! No, there had to be an answer somewhere! Students vanishing, strange going ons, there had to be an answer somewhere! I'd bet that the answer was lying directly in this school too! With so many weird things going on, the answer had to be here! It just had to be!

Leaving my book bag behind, I stepped out of the classroom and into the second floor hallway. The static still pollutes my eyes, but I can see where everything is well enough. I don't know where I should begin searching though. Did I even have a clue? Well, Leo would be considered one since he seemed to know what was about to happen to him, but he had vanished. Was there anyone else…maybe…SHINJI! Shinji was still in colour just like Leo and Taiga-sensei were. I'd bet that if anyone knew what was going on, it was Shinji! But where to find him? Did he even go to a club or was he the type to go home after school? If he was in the midst of this, I'd bet he wouldn't go home so quickly.

Wait…I heard him mention once how he was the vice-captain of the Archery Club. Well, 'talking about' was a weak statement. It was more like he was whining about how he was 'only' the vice-captain when he felt he should be the captain thanks to his 'superiority.' If he was telling the truth, then the archery range would be a good place to find him. Better yet, Taiga-sensei was the advisor for the archery club so if Shinji wasn't there, she likely would be and since she was the only other person who remained in colour in the room, I could interrogate her too!

Course set, I headed for the stairs, finding the main stairwell. I knew the school was big enough that not only did the first, second, and third years have their own floors, but the school was divided into vertical sections so classes A&B, C&D, E&F and etc. had their own hallways with appropriate staff offices in each hall for the teachers so they wouldn't have to go down several flights of stairs to find a place like the teacher's lounge. Of course, that meant that either the teachers who worked in the selected hallways were either qualified to teach several subjects or there were many teachers for the same subjects in each hallway. I wasn't sure which. I always wanted to see what the other floors were like but…I…just…didn't…

…my head…

I stumble slightly as I head down the stairs to the first floor, but I manage to get a grip on the rail and after a few deep breaths I'm able to keep on moving. The static in my eyes makes seeing the steps difficult at times, but I struggle my way to the first floor.

Reaching the level floors, I look to my right to where the hallway begins and I see a flash of an orange uniform with blonde hair. Leo?-! Did I just see Leo?-! Looking at him suddenly made the void of unease inside of me grow wider, and the feeling of humiliation and unease surrounds me as I watch him go. I feel as if he had caught me doing something bad despite him not even noticing I was there. He just calmly walked down the hall, but the static flashed in front of my eyes and he was suddenly gone again. Grimacing, I rubbed my eyes to reveal the hallway again but this time one of my…classmates was running down it, following him. Like the others, he's black and white but it seems paler than what I would have expected from these inactive people.

I felt like I was getting closer to the truth. I felt that I was on the edge between the false world that I knew and the world that existed behind it all. There had to be a reason for all of this. There had to be a cause for this pain and misery that I was feeling. I wanted…no, needed to know why I was living a lie.

Steeling myself, I headed down the hallway my classmates have gone into. Travelling past the windows and the classrooms, I see the turn up ahead and I also see glimpses of my classmate there. Not wanting to give myself away, I stepped softly and quietly as close as I could to try and hear what they may be talking about. Reaching the corner, I dared to peek around it. Leo's staring at the blank wall in front of him while my classmate is boring holes in his back with his eyes.

"The attention to detail is quite exquisite. Even the surrounding air is surprisingly substantial," Leo comments as if he's looking at a piece of art rather than a blank wall. "If that is the case, then this world is even more real that the real world it represents."

This world? Real world? What was he talking about?

"How about you guys?" he asks suddenly. "What are your thoughts on this?"

Oh man, he knew I was there! My classmate didn't seem to have figured out my presence, but it seemed that he had managed to guess that Leo had figured him out as well. After a moment, Leo turns and keeps his attention focused on my classmate, but his eyes flashed to me. My classmate didn't seem to notice.

"Greetings," Leo nodded to my classmate, but I still got the distinctive feeling that he was talking to me. "I think this is the first time we've had an actual conversation," he smiles in a disarming manner but there was something behind it that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up with shivers running down my spine for good measure. Maybe there was a dark side to Leo that we didn't see before…

"Attending school wasn't half-bad," Leo continued. "I've never been able to go to one before now. In that respect, this has been quite an experience."

It figured a kid like him would have been homeschooled most of his life, but what was he getting at with this?

"…however, the time for games has come to an end," Leo sighed. "I did not come here to play at being a student. No matter how enjoyable a detour, one must always return to their appointed path. And for me, that time has come…" he then turns his back on us to stare at the wall again. "Farewell…no, that's not quite right. I don't think farewell would be accurate in this situation. For reasons I can't explain, I get the feeling that we will be seeing each other once again. I suppose the proper words would be the congenial, 'see you later,'" he punctuates his statement by turning to look back directly at me. So he really did know I was there. He then turned back to the wall. Somehow, my classmate still didn't notice me, was he as dazed and confused as I was? "Now, it's time for me to move on. I wish you the best of luck."

Leo then takes several steps forward and rather than smacking into the wall like one would expect, he seems to vanish again. I feel my body stiffen and shock run through me at the sight, like I had just witnessed a flaw in reality being exploited. While I struggled to try and get my thoughts together again, my classmate stepped forward and touched the same spot on the wall Leo did before vanishing like the foreign boy did. That just sends a whole new wave of shock down my spine, but I am quicker to deal with it than before.

With the scene clear, I step out from my hiding place and try to examine the wall which apparently had swallowed two other people. When I got close enough, I could still only see a concrete wall. Still, there had to be something more to it! Leo and that other guy passed right through it! Raising my hand, I touched it to the same spot my peers had before they vanished. I was half-expecting to be sucked in but instead something else happened. I only blinked for a moment before the wall just…shifted. Like an error in a computer being corrected in a nanosecond, the wall in front of me transformed into a plain door which I would have seen in a gym or something. Still, despite how normal it looked I could feel the unnaturalness of it. The door shouldn't have been there and that went double for whatever was beyond it. Still, the answers to the mysteries that were going on around me were behind that door. I refused to live in a false world any longer. I pushed on the door and stepped inside.

My sight immediately cleared, making everything inside the room seem sharp and detailed when compared to things before. The place looked like a simple storage room like the one on the first floor should look like were students allowed in it. However, there were some very big differences in what I would have considered to be normal. Standing in front of a chest of draws was what looked like a kind of warped mannequin. All of its limbs and its torso looked like that had rings implanted underneath which stretched the material. It had diamond-shaped knees and its arms and legs ended in points. It's head was a simply round ball and bright orange lines spread over the surface of its body.

On the opposite wall through is what I would call…a hole in existence. It was like square sections were removed from the wall until it opened up into the black void. At the edge of the room, strange wisps of blue…I wanted to call it smoke or water or something but I knew that wasn't it. Still, it was secondary to the hole and the mannequin in front of me.

"_Welcome potential Master,_" a voice suddenly spoke out.

"Who's there?-!" I cried, looking for the source in alarm. I was in uncharted territory by this point and it was making me nervous. Strangely though, the voice seemed familiar.

The mannequin in front of me suddenly slumped over as if released from some kind of restraint. After a moment, it stood back up under its own power but other than that it didn't seem to do anything more for the moment. Still, it was enough to get my attention placed on it unflinchingly.

"_That effigy will be your sword and shield for what lies ahead. It will follow your commands,_" the voice explained. It put my mind somewhat at ease knowing that the mannequin, or rather effigy would not be ready to attack me. "_Now then, please proceed. The truth you seek lies ahead._"

I frown as I step closer to the strange void in front of me. The effigy reacts as I walk past and starts walking behind me like a trusted servant. I stop at the edge of the void, considering my options, what few there were. I wouldn't, couldn't go back to the world I was in before. Not with what I know now. That world was false and what was ahead, no matter how strange it seemed just had to be the truth. If I was being offered the effigy for protection, I was likely going to run into some less than friendly things. Hopefully the doll would be enough to protect me. Steeling myself, I step into the darkness.

At first the only light is from the room behind me as myself and the effigy walk. However, that quickly dies down as we head deeper and deeper into the darkness. I fear stepping off of a ledge somewhere since I couldn't see anything around me except myself and the effigy. The light from the lines in its body illuminated that much anyway. We continued walking and soon light began to appear at my feet. On each step, blue pixels would ripple out from where the effigy and I would step like we were walking through puddles. I kept going and soon the ground beneath was lit up with outlines of squared coloured a light blue. They just lit up all of a sudden, but I wasn't going to complain since I could see the path going off into the distance now. Hopefully it remained that way with no hidden pitfalls.

The effigy and I continued in our silent journey as I kept right on walking down the path of light squares. After a certain distance, I stepped onto the next square and suddenly there was a flash of light before the scenery changed. All around me was a spinning vortex of deep blue which looked either like water or smoke with the rest of it vanishing into the darkness both ahead and behind me. Almost like decoration, large grids of squares which would light up at random that hovered around me. The squares I was standing on were now filled with blue light but I could see through them.

"Don't get distracted," I muttered to myself. I pressed on, trying not to get dizzy with the sights around me.

Not that the scenery was making it any easier. As I passed by the grids, wireframe grids would fly by and one even passed through me! Along the sides, cubes would just pop up out of the vortex looking like they were made out of moving particles. Still, I managed to keep my balance and not fall off the side of my path and just kept going. It had to end sooner or later and I was determined to get there. So I continued going, keeping my eye on the horizon line. I kept running forward and stepping onto another one of the squares which brought forth another white flash.

The world around me changed again. I was still standing on connected blue squares of light but on either side were more squares of blue light which made up a hallway around me. It still stretched on forever but now I wouldn't end up falling off of the sides now. That in itself was good since everything around me had turned into darkness again. At least with the soft light of the walls and floor I could see where I was going.

I still kept going through the blue hallway before I finally found an ending to it which opened up into a room with the same blue squares making up the walls and floor. As the effigy and I walked into that room, the hallway behind us vanished to be replaced with another section of wall. I wasn't trapped though. There was an exit which led into another hallway ahead of me.

"_Welcome potential Master,_" the voice from before spoke up again. "_If you are searching for your answers, then you must reach the goal. Please step forward._"

It wasn't like I had much choice. It was the only way out. Sighing, I began trekking forward into the new hallway. With the walls so close in the hallway though, I could see into the distance even through the soft light of the walls. To my surprise, the scenery looked more like a deep, deep blue rather than black, as if I was underwater or something. I was pretty sure I could see fish, or at least fish bones hovering in the distance. It was hard to tell from my sight.

Moving on from the sight, I continued on to the end of the hallway which opened up into another room. This one actually had something in it. In the centre of the room was a kid of pedestal with had a bolt of energy rising up to hold what looked like a purple wireframe cube with something glowing in the middle.

"Huh?" I blinked at the sight.

"_The illuminated cube in front of you is called an Item Folder,_" the voice explained, as if reacting to my confusion or my presence. "_Inside is a farewell present of sorts for those who are about to face the trial. Touch it to open it._"

If that voice was any more ominous I would have expected lightning to crash every time the guy made a sentence. Still, if this 'present' was going to be of any use to me for what might be coming up then I was better off in grabbing it. Walking towards the Item Folder, I reached the base before pressing my hand against the glowing surface of the cube. An unlocking sound came from my touch before the top, bottom, and four corners of the cube disassembled to reveal the green orb inside. Reaching inside the cube, I touched the item which promptly vanished. Rather than feel I had lost the item, I felt as if I still had it. I even knew what it was. I had been given an Ether Shard which would recover the health of my effigy should it be needed.

Pulling my hand it back, I turned to leave the room and found that it exited to a ramp which was purple and led upwards. Normally going up wouldn't have been a problem but that was when something usually wasn't in my way. To be specific, a blue ball with a white stripe running vertically through the centre, blue circuit designs on the body and a bright violet optic in the centre.

"What the-?" I blink in confusion. How could I have missed seeing this? I guess the Item Folder had been pretty distracting.

"_Before you is an enemy program,_" the voice explained. "_It is programmed to attack on sight. Touching it will initiate battle. However, you are too fragile to fight. The effigy will battle in your stead. If your effigy should be destroyed, you will be vulnerable to harm. In other words you will die so be extremely careful._"

"No pressure," I muttered under my breath.

"_There is no need to be afraid. Just do as I say and you will be perfectly safe for the time being,_" the voice attempted to reassure me. It failed miserably. "_I shall explain battle conduct. As a master, you will only have three possible means of direct battle. Attack, Defend, and Break. Attack is a straightforward means of battle but can be stopped by a suitable Defence. Defend will protect your effigy from most of the damage, but it can be Broken. Break will burst through any defence, but can be circumvented by a suitable Attack._"

Attack beats Break, Break beats Defend and Defend beats Attack. Well….it sounded easy enough. Still, it seemed kind of cut and dry in terms of an actual fight. I was no real expert but even I knew that a fight wasn't so clean as the voice was making it out to be. There had to be more to this than what he was saying, but what it was I certainly didn't know. I suppose the only way to be sure was to get into a battle in this place and see for myself.

"_This program will only use the Break command._ _Now, begin!_" the voice boomed

The orb came to life, light coming from the optic in the middle. It took one look at me and began to hover towards me. The effigy went on the alert as well and dashed in front of me. The orb kept coming closer, but the effigy had just suddenly frozen as if it didn't know what to do next. I then recalled that the voice told me that there were tree ways to battle and likely the effigy would need something to get it primed up. This ball would only use Break so…

"Attack!" I cried out.

The effigy perked up and charged at the approaching ball. It lunged out with its arm and punched the orb, making it shudder with panels rising up out of its surface. The ball managed to recover and charge again only to receive another punch followed by a third before the effigy lashed out with a rapid kick. The ball seemed dazed for a moment but then art before it began charging yet again. The effigy didn't disappoint before it lashed out with another trio of punches which send the ball crashing into the ground. The ball shuddered for a moment before it turned black and dissolved into black smoke.

"_Well done,_" the voice congratulated me. "_However the goal is still up ahead so if you must bask in this tiny victory then do it as you move._"

Killjoy the voice was, it was right. I headed forward again and began climbing up the violet ramp. I idly noticed large fish bones hovering in the air beyond the light walls which kept me on my path. Still, I ignored them as I reached the top of the ramp and entered the room waiting for me. Inside of the room was another one of those floating balls, but this one was green instead of blue like the one before me.

"_This enemy program is programmed to only use the Attack command_," the voice spoke as the ball took notice of me and began to approach. "_Begin!_"

"Defend!" I cried, remembering what the voice explained before. The effigy leapt forward and crossed its arm in front of it, making a hexagonal field appear in front of it for a moment. The orb charged forward and smashed against the field, but didn't seem to do anything before the effigy managed to kick it back, making it spasm. Whatever the orb was, it wasn't made to be smart since it attacked again despite the effigy having taken a defensive position. The orb smashed against the effigy's defence and got kicked again a second time, then a third when it tried again. As the orb stumbled, the effigy managed to strike with an extra kick. The process repeated itself three more times before the ball dropped to the ground and vanished into a haze of black smoke.

"_Very good. Continue,_" the voice prompted.

I look to see the exit and move towards it. As I move, I was able to see more of the surroundings outside of the walls. Giant bones of what I assume to be prehistoric fish drift around in the space and looks like an ominous warning rather than cool like it had been a moment ago.

I travelled through the hallway which made a sharp bank left, showing off more of those creepy floating bones outside of the walls. Quickly reaching the end of the hall, I saw yet another of the floating balls waiting for me. This one was yellow and I could guess what this one would do as I got closer.

"_This enemy program will only use the Defend command,_" the voice spoke up as I drew close. "_Now, begin!_"

"Break!" I shouted out.

The effigy heard the command and charged at the ball which had dipped its optic low. It jumped and made a spinning kick which smashed through the faint honeycomb-like shield I saw surrounding the orb and knocked it silly. The construct then continued and lashed out with more devastating kicks which broke through the ball's defence every time. After another devastating kick, the ball dropped to the ground and vanished like the ones before it.

"_Good. You have mastered the three basics,_" the voice spoke as the last of the orb vanished. "_Now all that is left is a practical test. Please proceed._"

I grimaced at the voice, starting to find it annoying rather than comforting by this point. Still, I obey as I head towards the room's exit to find a ramp heading downwards. Following it, I find another floating ball waiting for me, this one coloured a blood red.

"_Before now, all enemies you have faced have used a single command,_" the voice explained. "_This one will not. Use your judgement and best decide your attack pattern. Now, begin!_"

The red ball began hovering towards me and I tried to figure out what to do. Since it was flying towards me it couldn't be defending and it wasn't coming in fast so I guessed it was a normal attack.

"Defend!" I ordered.

The effigy leaped forward again and did just that, blocking an attack from the ball before lashing out with a kick which knocked the thing back. The ball recovered and charged again, this time much faster than before.

"Attack!" I shouted, hoping that my timing wasn't off.

It wasn't. The effigy dipped around the Break strike and lashed out with a punch which knocked the orb back a second time. This time, the orb didn't seem to want to move and instead began to dip its optic down. It was trying to defend itself now apparently.

"Break!" I cried.

The effigy obeyed and lashed out with a strong kick which busted the ball's defences and made it drop to the ground. It quickly turned black and dissolved into smoke.

"_Good. Your final test awaits,_" the voice commanded.

I sighed and walked to the door again with the effigy taking its position behind me. I saw the exit to the wireframe room to my right and quickly passed through it into another hallway, the outside nearly packed with the forms of bones floating just beyond the squares of light. At the end of the hallway though was a massive sphere of spinning cloud which my current path vanished into despite the aquatic images which made up the outside scenery. Passing through the hallway without problems, I stepped into the swirling mist.

Stepping through the mist, I found myself stepping onto a brightly light section of floor which had an artistic design on the floor which three spots on the floor. At the edge of the platform in front of me, three large stained glass windows stood tall and brightly in front of me, making me feel like I was in a place of worship all of a sudden. Everything beyond the platform was darkness and not even the path I took to get in here or the mist which surrounded it on the outside was visible. As I admired the architecture I noticed something which was almost shoved to the side. It didn't take me long to recognize them as another effigy and…a DEAD BODY!

I couldn't even scream, cry, or yell out. I just dashed to the body and grabbed the shoulder so to see if they were still alive or if they really were dead. I recognized the uniform as one from my school, which made my heart skip a beat in itself. Touching him, I was met with coldness akin to that of a rock. No question about it, he was dead. Looking at his face though, it gave me a start when I realized that I recognized him! He was the student which had followed Leo through the doorway into this weird place!

What had happened to him?

A creaking sound caught my attention and I turned to see that my classmate's effigy had started to move. Standing up, I backed away from it out off instinct. The other effigy though just seemed to straighten itself out and begin to advance towards me. Just looking at the other effigy, I could just tell from the cold sinking in my gut that it wanted hurt me, do me harm, kill me. My own effigy leapt into action and blocked the path of its twin. I knew I had to start this fight off and end the thing before it got any more out of control!

"Atta-!"

WHAM!

A vicious kick clobbered my effigy's face before I could voice the command.

Crap! I was to slow!

"Defe-!"

CRUNCH!

A straight punch had smashed into my effigy's face, making it stumble back.

This wasn't good!

"DEFE-!"

WHAM!

Another kick, but while my effigy was stumbling the enemy made another move with another brutal kick.

BOOM!

My effigy slammed into the ground with an echoing slam and it didn't get up again. The enemy effigy then turned its attention towards me and began to advance. I tried to will my legs to move, but it was like my muscles and joints were locked. The enemy effigy didn't stop as it reached me before rearing back and unleashing a straight punch at me. With it's pointed limb, it punctured my chest and knocked me to the ground. Pain lit up my world and my mind went into a spiral so quickly I didn't even know what had happened to me at first.

I lay at the foot of the three circles in the floor. I tried to focus my eyes, but as I did I noticed something about the room around me. My classmate which followed Leo hadn't been the only one on the floor. There were several classmates all around me, just as dead and colourless as he was. They must have…ended up in this place…too. Like me…they saw how fake…the world was. Like me…they lost. I can hear that voice…again. It talks about me being…inadequate. Something about preliminaries…and finding peace in annihilation.

Fuzzy…

Dark…

So many….

Like…

…me…

…

…

…no

…no…

NO!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I REFUSE!

I snapped my eyes open, a flash of static filling my vision for just a moment before I begin trying to move again. Fire rips through my body as if some force is just telling me to lay down and die, but I refused to acknowledge it. I didn't come this far, break free from that fake world that I knew to enter only a few steps into this one and just die! I wasn't going to die here! I wasn't just going to let myself lay back and be erased! I wasn't going to die for no reason beyond something else's convenience!

"_Well said!_" a new voice spoke up, sounding vigorous and strong. "_All lives are meant for a purpose be they grand ambitions or for small tasks. No one is born without a purpose. Not me, and certainly not you! You have your own destiny and path to fulfil. I think I'll enjoy walking along this path and seeing just where your kind of logic will lead you."_

There is a sudden crash of glass breaking and a flash of light. I managed to pull my head up to see what happened and found that two of the tree windows had shattered, leaving the one in the middle by itself. The darkness around the platform has erupted into a swirling mass of energetic blue that gives new life to the area and gives me some energy to sit up and see what was happening. Not far from me, the effigy which struck me down has turned shock still, as if waiting for new orders. Ahead of me, a light is shining down on the floor on the centre spot in the trio.

From that centre spot a man appears in a flash of light. He stands tall and proud, a man in his twenties at least. He wears a white shirt with a deep brown vest and a blue tie. He also has brown trousers and polished black shoes which shine in the current light. Over his shirt the wears a gray jacket with gold buttons and what appears to be a pocket watch chain sticking out and fastened in one of the button holes of his jacket. He had short light brown hair which ended in long sideburns, matching hairstyles of a bygone era. His features were strongly defined, someone who had absolute confidence in everything he did and had at least planned ahead three to five steps in everything he did. The man took one look at me and approached with an easy smile on his face.

"It seems that you don't truly fathom the situation you're in at the moment," he smiled at me. "Never fear all will be made clear in time. Before we can truly inform one another of the situation and the consequences of our participation there is the matter of our contract to deal with," he reached down to me with an offering hand. "You were the one who called for me, correct?"

I was stunned, but something about this man's confidence inspired my own. At least someone knew what the hell was going on around me. Reaching out, I took his hand and he hefted me to my feet with a strong pull, like I was almost weightless. Still, this man appeared as I struggled for my life after that effigy has hit me with enough force to make me feel like I was dying. Now though, I felt like I could survive this. I was still in pain, but I didn't feel like I was about to die anymore.

"Well…since I'm the only one here…I guess I did summon you," I replied.

"A perfectly logical conclusion," the man nodded, releasing my hand. "Excellent. You'll find that since our contract is still new, my physical skills are not where they should be, but my other skills can more than make up the difference."

From the hand he grabbed to pull me up, a deep burning sensation appeared. Grimacing, I grabbed my left wrist and watched as a crest of some sort appeared on the back of my hand glowing bright red like the most vibrant tattoo I had ever seen. It appears to be a red circle inside of a bigger circle inside of an even larger circle which was connected to a stick. I felt my mind in a while of confusion and pain, having absolutely no clue what this meant or what was going next.

A rattling noise answered that question. The effigy what had struck me and destroyed my own effigy had seemed to get its senses back and had moved into a fighting stance. I couldn't help but flinch at the sight of it ready for a fight again. I remembered how it managed to beat down my effigy before it tried to kill me.

"So this is the one who put you on the brink of death is it?" asked the man who appeared before me. Instead of standing in front of me, he stepped forward so to shield me from the effigy's aggression. "Well we cannot have that. Please stay back while I deal with this puppet, Master."

The man stepped forward and took a boxing stance while facing off against the effigy. The construct didn't seem to care who it fought and charged for a blow. I wanted to shout out a command or something, but the man was already moving long before I even thought of something to say. He raised his arms up in a shielding motion which the effigy's punch collided against. He then quickly retaliated with a straight punch which smashed into the effigy's face, studding it before it received a second punch to the face which made it stumble back. With the construct not as close as before, I could see that it's face had taken some damage from the punches, becoming cracked. The stranger wasn't done yet as he closed the space between the two, but the effigy move to block. It seemed that my saviour had expected it though and unleashed an uppercut which broke through said means of protection and put a huge crack straight through the effigy's head, making it slump backwards onto the ground again.

"As I thought, the main means of function was indeed inside the head," the man nodded, rubbing his knuckles.

I couldn't help but blink at what I had seen. Only three punches…three punches had taken down something which blasted my effigy so ruthlessly. Not only that, but he had managed to dominate the fight from the first step. He countered the first move and then counterattacked to the point where he managed to defeat the thing with minimal movement and from what I saw, effort. However, I didn't have time to ask how he managed it so quickly. The marking on the back of my hand had turned intensely hot to the point it felt like it was searing through my mind as well as my body. What was…happening to me?

"_That mark imprinted on your hand is your Command Seal,_" the voice from before spoke up again. "_It is the proof you hold dominion over a Servant. You may use them up to give three orders which must be obeyed. Think of them as temporary strengthening spells. They are also proof of your participation in the Holy Grail War. If you lose them for any reason, you will die._"

I pant as the burning courses through me. I manage to concentrate on what the voice is telling me. Holy Grail War. Command Seals. Lose them, I die. Right. I can keep that straight in my mind.

"_I must say congratulations for your victory. You have endured much to get here and have managed to achieve your goal,_" the voice spoke, easily sounding amused. "_It was likely the most clumsy attempt I have ever seen, but that is what made it all the more entertaining. I've held this duty a long time and I don't think I've seen a Master as helpless as you. Nonetheless, congratulations. Your decisions brought on by rashness and nerves has brought you this victory._"

"Ha ha ha…Jerk," I grunt under my breath.

"_Now we shall continue your baptism. For you, the monotony of everyday life has come to an end,_" the voice continued in a reverent tone. "_Your decision to look beyond the accepted and progress means you have earned the right to exist. However, you have but taken the first step. Be jubilant, young knight, for the Holy Grail War begins now!_"

The pain sears through me even now, but it was getting easier to listen to the bodiless voice for some reason. It didn't mean that he was any easier to understand though. "Holy Grail? Right to exist?"

"_That's right. An object of great power once existed in the world. The power to grant any desire. People called it the Holy Grail and fought endlessly for the sole right to possess it. The war, this system that you find yourself in is an evolution of those struggles. You stand at the entrance of a struggle in which many magi with perish in pursuit of the Holy Grail. Now, fight to the death. The fiery throne of heaven will only accept those_ _with the strongest desire._"

My head was filling with both questions and pain. Holy Grail? War? Killing? Magi? Just what the hell had I been brought into the middle of?

"_In war, a weapon is needed. That is your Servant. The spear that pierces, the shield that protects. A Heroic Spirit who's purpose is to clear the way to the Grail. That is who stands beside you._"

Heroic Spirit? I look to the man who rescued me from the rogue effigy. He merely nods at me, a confirmation of what the echoing voice had said about him.

"_It seems you have decided, and with that decision as payment I open the gates to the Holy Grail War._"

The Command Seals on my hand flare up and a new level of pain I had never even thought possible lanced through me. I grunt in pain and collapse to the floor. It was too much for me. My mind begins to shut down and everything starts going dark around me. My Servant watches on, unconcerned. I guess…I'll be okay if he's not freaking out over this. As I pass out though, I can hear the last words of the voice which had been my guide until this point.

"_Now let the Holy Grail War begin. No matter what the era, deciding who is worthy through battle is the divine providence of man. Magi who have been invited here by the moon; show me your strength"_

* * *

A/N: Okay,this is my forray into the world of Fate/Extra, what with the release of the game in North America. I decided to stay true to the prologue, but use my own Servant to send the game on a more original path rather than play straight along the script which the game itself would have. I'm sure that other authors would want to do that. No, my System Error path would involve new opponents, new Servants, and a new purpose for the protagonist simply as more than just your regular combatant. Like it? Hate it? On the fence about it? Send a review and tell me what you think.


	15. KR Fourze: Cosmic Maelstrom

I do not own Kamen Rider Fourze or Naruto. I am only writing this for fun and not for any kind of profit. So no one get it in their heads to sue me. To anyone who is interested, drop a line and let me know what you think.

**Kamen Rider Fourze: Cosmic Maelstrom**

**By Ten-Faced Paladin**

**Chapter 1: Shining Star**

Konohagakure.

The main city centre of Hinokuni Prefecture, it is inarguably one of the most economically prosperous places in all of the country. A modern day city with clean streets, good businesses, low crime rate, and always sporting the latest trends in technology, fashion, and other areas it is the place to be when one wants to make a good life for themselves. Led by the government with Hiruzen Sarutobi as the mayor, the city seemed to be looking at nothing but a bright future. It was often the mayor's ideal that the will of fire, the desire to strive forward and reach for one's future, was bright, alive, and well in the latest generation of people to live within the city limits.

This is the story of one such individual and how he will soon affect the world.

This story, like all stories circles around a central location. Konoha Gakuen. It was a school for students from prestigious families who want nothing but the best for their children. It boasted excellent facilities and a very good curriculum for students within its walls. Its athletics programs had gained very impressive reputations over the years. All of the prestigious families of Konohagakure sent their children there. It was a peaceful school which reportedly had no tolerance for delinquents, but…

"NARUTOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

…sometimes that fact was exaggerated.

Dashing through the hallways of the school was one of its many students, dodging his classmates left and right as he dashed as fast as he could. He wore black trousers and a white button up shirt, but unlike the clean uniforms his classmates would wear, he also wore a black coat which reached down to his feet and a black headband which had the Konoha Gakuen signature marked on it, a leaf with a spiral in it. He had wild blonde hair which spiked in all direction, energetic blue eyes, a huge grin on his mouth, and three whisker-like marks on each of his cheeks. His name? Naruto Uzumaki, the self-proclaimed #1 prankster in all of Konohagakure.

Chasing him was a man who looked to be in his late twenties to thirties. He wore the stereotypical teacher's outfit of gray pants, a simple white-collar shirt, and a brown jacket. He had brown hair tied up in a short ponytail and his most distinguishing feature was the scar which ran across the bridge of his nose. He was one of the many teachers of Konoha Gakuen, Iruka Umino.

"Hey comone on Iruka-sensei! No need to be a party pooper!" Naruto laughed as he ran from his teacher.

"Dammit Naruto you're not getting away this time!" Iruka shouted back, dodging a pair of female students. "You went too far! You defaced the Hokage Monument this time! Do you know just how much trouble you're in?"

"I can ball park it, but to get me in trouble you've got to catch me!" Naruto shot back.

Racing around a corner, Naruto spotted a stairwell and dashed to it. Rather than try to run down it though, he slipped onto the railing and slid down at a rapid pace, giving him a slight lead over Iruka who had tried running down the stairs the traditional way. Slipping off the rail at the bottom and taking a running start, Naruto spied the doorway which led outside of the school and to his freedom. Already tasting the sweet ramen-like liberty, he made a mad dash for the doors with the intent of claiming the credit of being able to pull off a god-like prank such as his…

…when he suddenly felt something catch on his leg, causing him to tumble over and do a high-speed face plant into the tiles of the floor. The laughter of the students who managed to catch the scene rang through the halls as Naruto groaned. Removing his face from the tiles, he looked ahead to see two polished black shoes. Looking up, Naruto spied an expanse of black pants leading to black suspenders over a white button-up shirt with rolled up sleeves. One hand was stuck on a pocket while the other was idly holding up an open copy of the hottest adult novel to hit the shelves, _Icha-Icha Paradise_. Lastyly, the face of the person was covered up by a flu mask while his gray and spiked hair covered his left eye. Who was he? None other than Kakashi Hatake, another one of the teachers of Konoha Gakuen.

"Kakashi-sensei," Naruto groaned. "How…?"

"We memorized all of your known escape routes," Kakashi chuckled with his visible eye closed as if he were smiling. "Good try though. This one is definitely going to go down in the yearbook, if not in the record books."

Iruka jogged up to the scene with a huff "Thanks Kakashi,"

"No problem," the gray-haired man shrugged as he began reading his book. "It made for an interesting day."

Looking down at the downed Naruto, Iruki spied a line of string sitting limply on the floor next to his feet. Kakashi had likely strung it up in anticipation of Naruto running in his direction after it was discovered that he had pulled his latest prank. It kind of spoke about the amount of mischief he would get into since the teachers actually took the time to learn about escape routes he had taken in the past and began staking them out whenever he had gotten into trouble.

"Naruto, what are we going to do with you?" Iruka sighed as he picked Naruto up by his jacket and began dragging him away. "Now you know we're going to have a talk with Ms. Tsunade."

Naruto instantly paled, "Nooo! Iruka-sensei! She'll kill me!"

"You brought this on yourself Naruto," Iruka replied dragging the teen away. "Now you'll have to face the concequences."

"NOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooo-!" Naruto's scream trailed off as he was dragged into the school.

"Kids," Kakashi chuckled, shaking his head as he left to continue reading his book.

* * *

Naruto found himself deposited in a chair outside of the principal's office. Fortunately, he wasn't alone either. Sitting in a chair next to him was one of his fellow students who was wearing the proper Kanoha Gakuen uniform, pants, white button shirt with short sleeves and the leaf insignia on the chest pocket. He had black hair which was tied into what would have been a ponytail but it was so short it looked more like a pineapple. He had narrow eyes and he looked like he was ready to fall asleep in his chair. His name was Shikamaru Nara, and he was Naruto's buddies. If there ever was a definition for the term slacker, it would be Shikamaru's name. The guy hated to do work and would much rather go out and nap under the sky than anything else. It drove his mom insane who nagged him to no end about it. Strangely though, the guy's mind was as sharp as a tack which managed to grab him high marks in class…when he would stay awake for them.

"Fell asleep in class again?" asked Naruto.

"Yup," Shikamaru nodded. "Saw what you did to the monument. Troublesome Naruto, real troublesome."

"Eh, the old coots needed some colour to them," the blonde shrugged.

"Two of those old coots are the principal's grandfather and granduncle," lazy boy shot back. "She's probably going to skin you alive for that one."

Naruto could only whimper and pray that his friend was wrong.

The door to the office opened and a pretty brunette, Shizune, stuck her head out to glance at the boys. She was Tsunade's secretary and probably the one who knew Tsunade best out of anyone in the entire school, the pair actually sharing an apartment together. Shizune was the niece of Tsunade's former lover Dan who had died. After which, it left Shizune an orphan and Tsunade adopted her in order to lay some of Dan's worries at his deathbed to rest.

How Naruto knew this? That would be explained later.

"Naruto-kun, you're expected," the brunette sighed at the blonde.

"Right," Naruto gulped. Standing up and heading like a man on the execution block, he walked into the office. Shizune took a seat at a desk right next to the door, her desk while Naruto walked up to a more ornate desk which was in front of a large window before taking a seat. At the other side of the desk was a woman who looked to be very pretty with long blonde hair done up in two ponytails. She had a blue diamond-like marking on her forehead and she wore a simple blouse with a jacket and matching skirt. One aspect which was noticeable about her though was her massive bust line which easily outdid any other woman in the school. This was the principal of Konoha Gakuen, Tsunade Senju.

Tsunade was not a woman to be crossed. She was tough, strict, and had a temper when you pressed her buttons right. She made sure things in Konoha Gakuen were run right and didn't exactly bow to some of the students who had rich parents whining about why their kids weren't the little geniuses that they assumed they would be. As tough as she was though, she had a softer side to her which she often didn't show on account of her position. A fun note was that unbeknownst to her, she was the winner of 'Konoha Gakuen's Hottest Woman' for the last three years running since female faculty members were added to the candidate list the student newspaper wrote up to promote the joke contest. What really mystified some people and got the ire of many girls and female teachers was that Tsunade was a woman around her fifties yet looked like she could pass for someone in her twenties. People of course claimed cosmetic surgery, but Tsunade would just say she was all natural.

Tsunade frowned as Naruto took her seat, resting her head on her hand propped up with her elbow, "This is the third time this week you've been here Naruto and this time you actually defaced our school's Hokage Monument. You are aware that by all accounts I could expel you for this?"

Naruto gulped, "Ah…"

Sighing, Tsunade let her hard principal persona drop for her more informal personality, "Naruto, why do you keep pulling stunts like this? You're a good kid and damn clever if you can pull off complicated crap like this and not get caught until it's done. If even half of that creativity was used for your studies you'd be on the honour roll by now."

"But all of the teachers talk about boring stuff Baa-chan!" Naruto grimaced. "I mean, what am I going to need astronomy for? Why do I need to know history?"

"You need to know so you'll have a firm base in case you want to deal with a career that has to do with those things," Tsunade frowned. "I know it can be boring sometimes but if you want to make a good life for yourself you're going to have to learn it. Konoha University only accepts the best and with your grades as they are, you won't even be able to sit the entrance exam."

"…" Naruto remained silent.

"Just think about what I said," Tsunade continued, looking down at a sheet of paper in front of her. "In the meantime, you'll be serving detention after school until the monument is cleaned. You'll be the one cleaning it. Am I clear?"

"Yes Baa-chan," Naruto sighed.

"Good," the bust woman nodded. "Now get going. You're already late for class."

Nodding, Naruto got up from the chair and headed out of the office. Shizune watched him go with a slight sad frown on her face. Once he stepped outside, the brunette sighed and shook her head, "I wished we could help Naruto-kun out."

"I wish we could too, but we can't" Tsunade replied, signing her paperwork.

"But you're his godmother!" Shizune insisted. "That has to count for something!"

"Legally, yes. But remember how much crap I'm getting for not expelling him for some of his stunts?" asked the blonde with a frown. "You and I already have to tighten our belts as it is. We can't afford another person along with the other debts I have."

"Something which may not be happening if _someone_ could tell when to call it a night," Shizune frowned pointedly at her employer.

Tsunade flushed slightly and scratched her cheek. Tsunade, while a fine principal, was also someone who loved to gamble and did it often. Unfortunately, she wasn't very good at it and almost always lost. She'd make a big prize now and then, but her debts would eat up whatever she won and she'd start up all over again swearing she'd hit the big one soon. Her lack of skills were so well known everyone called her The Legendary Sucker.

* * *

Inside the classroom of 2-S, the students were going through their literature lessons with Kakashi-sensei who was teaching them about their current project, The Great Gatsby. Of course, Kakashi-sensei was never without his Icha-Icha and would randomly come to class for free study periods and simply read his adult novel at a free desk while everyone else went about their class time.

At the back of the classroom was a student who like Naruto, would help affect the world

Her name was Hinata Hyuuga, heiress of the prestigious Hyuuga family the richest family in Konohagakure. She had fair features and long ebony hair which made her appear quite pretty. One of her most distinguishing features was her pupil-less lavender eyes which was a common trait in all Hyuuga family members. While she was the heiress of one of the social elite, Hinata was painfully shy and didn't like to stand out too much. Unfortunately, being from a rich family and being pretty made her the target of many boys' attention. Her shy nature in avoiding them though gave her a reputation of being stand-offish though and she only had a few friends in the entire school. However, there was one aspect about Hinata that she thought that was a closely kept secret.

The door to the classroom opened.

Hinata glanced up and her face immediately turned rosy as she spied Naruto enter the classroom with a grin and a wave. Since she had first saw Naruto in action, she had developed a powerful crush on him. He was outgoing, cheerful, friendly, and unafraid of how other people viewed him. His courage and friendly nature was so appealing to her and she couldn't help but feel strongly for him. However, she was just so shy she couldn't bring herself to confess to him. She was too afraid what her father might do if she found out she was trying to go out with the school delinquent. Of course, everyone who knew her could tell that she was crushing on the knucklehead, everyone but Naruto himself.

The blonde took his seat and class continued as Kakakshi went on with his lesson, "Okay Naruto, since you were so kind to join us perhaps you can give us a basic rundown on the characters Gatsby?"

"Um," Naruto blinked. "He was great?"

Chuckles came from the class from the joke. Hinata herself had to stifle an onset of giggles. It was all good-natured laughing since Naruto knew the right moments to interject a joke during any situation. Even kakashi seemed to have a small laugh at the comment before he got serious, "To many I suppose. But for the sake of your participation mark maybe you could give me a serious answer?"

"Um...okay…uh…" Naruto gulped. "He…uh…fought in the world war and uh…fell in love with that married lady in the book…and then uh…went to find her and lied about hitting a woman with a car, right? Then her husband shot him."

Kakashi nodded and looked back to the board, "Not a perfect answer, but enough to show you've been paying attention I suppose."

"Colour me shocked dobe!" one student shouted from the rows.

"Bite me!" Naruto snapped back.

"Simmer down," Kakashi warned, glancing back before turning to continued his chalkboard writings. "Okay, as I was saying before we were interrupted…"

* * *

The final bell of the day eventually rang and Hinata prepared to leave for home. Glancing at her watch, she found that she still had a little time before the assigned car which was to pick her up was supposed to arrive. Deciding to do something, she went off to explored the school and see what her friends were up.

"Sakura-san should be in the library," Hinata commented to herself as she hefted her bag over her shoulder. "Maybe we can catch up a little."

Walking through the halls of the first floor, her destination was the stairs since the library was on the second floor. Glancing to the windows to see what may be outside into the school courtyard, she spotted what was known as the Hokage Monument. It was a memorial of the previous four principals of Konoha Gakuen with the first two having founded the school. Normally the statues were made of bronze, but today they were painted with a veritable rainbow of colours making them look like they had come out of a hippie's daydream. Next to them, Naruto was spraying the statue with a hose, attempting to wash of the paint off and was making a halfway decent job of it so far.

"Good thing the paint didn't dry yet," Naruto muttered. "Next time I'm using water-based paint."

Hinata moved to a door which led out to the courtyard and simply decided to watch Naruto work. Despite having vandalized what was considered an important monument, Naruto didn't seem to have done it any out of sense of maliciousness. He had simply done it to break the tedium of day to day activity. It certainly made the day exciting as everyone talked about what had happened.

"Ah, I guess these old guys needed a washing down anyway," Naruto continued to talk to himself as he pressed his thumb over the end of the hose for more pressure to spray out some of the gaps in the clothes of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the third principal since the school had been founded.

'_Naruto-kun,_' Hinata smiled as she watched the blonde boy work, completely unrepentant of what he had done.

"_Why do you always have to moon over that moron?-!"_ a warped voice sudden spoke up, breaking Hinata out of her crush-induced thoughts.

Turning, Hinata spied what looked like a large void of emptiness approaching her from down the hall. In the midst of it all, several bright lights which looked like stars appeared in the void taking the form of what she could really call a constellation. The void pulsed as the lights drew back into something before vanishing.

And from the void, a monster appeared.

It was a bulky creature with a large muscular torso which looked like it could have doubled as armour since it looked like it was mad of bronze. The shoulders were large and rounded with muscular arms extending from them with red bracers. At the waist the creature wore a loincloth and its bronze metalliz legs ended in what looked like stone boots. Finally, it's face looked like it was made of stone which was styiled into curly hair with bright red gemstone eyes and a beard which appeared to be made of stone carved into jagged spikes which covered the rest of the face. Howeverm it had a strange design all across its body. On each shoulder was a blue gemstone which had a silver line connecting them across its collarbone with more lines connecting to two more gemstones on its waist. From there, the lines ran across in a diamond shape between three gemstones on its loincloth while several gemstones on its legs were connected by silver lines to the loincloth with five on the right leg and three on the left. The arms also had uneven gemstones connected by silver lines on the shoulders. The three on the right arm reached down to the elbow while the five on the left reached down to its wrist.

"Ah…ah…ah…" Hinata gaped, watched the hulking monster approach her.

"_I always wondered just why was it that you gave so much attention to that delinquent when you had someone like ME just waiting for you to open your eyes!_" the monster grunted as it continued to approach. "_Well, since you aren't going to open them, I guess I'll make you see what's been waiting for you!_"

That was all Hinata needed, "KYAAAAHHHHH!"

Hinata quickly began running for her life with the monster chasing her in close pursuit. As it began going by the door through a stream of water shot through the opening and splashed into the monster's face and made it choke and splutter as it tried to block the offending stream of liquid.

Hinata ran around a corner and hid, watching to see if the monster would try to follow her.

"Hey freak! Leave the girl alone!" she heard Narto shout loudly.

"_RAGH!_" the monster growled, stomping througn the doorway where Naruto was trying use the stream of water to…well, not fight it but certainly irritate it. "_I was going to deal with you later, but why waste the opportunity?_"

"Yeah, sure, that's what they all say," Naruto grinned as he tossed the hose away.

Bellowing, the monster charged at Naruto with one of its massive fists raised before punching at him. Naruto ducked away from the blow, but he felt the displaced air from the attack press against his back as he lunged forward to punch the thing in the chest. Rather than a grunt being heard by the monster as the air left it's lungs, a crack sounded from Naruto's fist.

"OW! SONOVA-!" Naruto cussed as he backed away from the monster. "What the hell are you made of?-!"

"_Why should I tell you? You'll be dead in a second!_" the monster roared as it charged again.

The monster attempted to pound Naruto into the dirt, but the blonde boy seemed to simply jump and leap out of the way of the attacks. Hinata could only watch as her crushed seemed to avoid certain death as each monstrous punch smashed into the dirt and left sizable craters in their wake. She practiced the Hyuuga style of martial arts at home so she knew battles when she saw them, but it seemed like Naruto was brawling out of pure instinct, somehow known when and where to dodge the attack to bring the maximum amount of effort out of the monster as it tried to hit him. Of course, his dodging technique was incredibly sloppy, making Hinata think that he had absolutely no training or had simply watched other martial artists fight.

Naruto grinned as he dove around the hulking monster and aimed another punch for the base of its neck. It just had to have a soft spot there! He leaped into the air to reach the monster's neck, but the monster turned quickly as it followed Naruto's movement and grabbed him by the front of his jacket.

"Yow! Hey, leggo!" Naruto grunted, trying to force the monster to release him.

"_Why you?_" asked the monster. "_What is it about you that got her attention where I couldn't?-!_"

"Huh?" Naruto blinked, looking confused.

"_And you don't even notice it! EUGH!_" the monster growled. "_Looking at you makes me sick!_" Rearing its arm back, the monster hurled Naruto through the air and clear across the courtyar before he smashed through one of the windows and impacted against the opposite wall before dropping to the ground.

"NARUTO-KUN!" Hinata screamed, standing up.

The monster turned towards her as if it had been slapped by her scream, "_You still pine for him? I just proved to you how worthless he was and you still scream for him?-!_" the ruby red eyes began to flash. "_RAAAAGH! IF YOU WON'T LEAVE HIM THEN I'LL JUST TAKE YOU!_"

The beast began charging at Hinata again, making the young heiress run for her life once again. Dashing around the hallways circling the courtyard, Hinata tried to put some distance between herself and her pursuer. The smashing noise which sounded like an explosion indicated that the kaijin hadn't bothered to use the door. Turning a corner, she spied Naruto on the ground slowly recovering. Dashing over to him, she grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him.

"Naruto-kun, you have to get up! We've got to run!" she pleaded, for once not bitterly shy about being around Naruto.

"Ugh…cheap shot…" the blonde grunted, shaking his head. Looking up, he blinked as he looked into Hinata's lavender eyes. "Uh…Hinata?"

"Hurry! We have to run!" Hinata pleaded, pulling on Naruto's shoulder to help him stand up.

Both students on their feet again, ran for their lives as they heard the large monster smashing its way through the halls after them. After turning a few corners, they spied an exit and quickly ran for it. Naruto led the charge and jammed his shoulder into the door and slammed it open, allowing himself and Hinata to exit into the open air of the school track field.

"W-w-we have to hide!" Hinata trembled, some of the impact of the situation heading down on her.

"Right!" Naruto agreed. He spotted the school's supply shed. It was a sizable building which could fit a classroom, but only used for storage. Not only for sports supplies though. Sometimes surplus school items like lockers, desks, or chairs ended up there when there was no other place for them on account of all of the classrooms being filled. "This way! It's one of my escape routes!"

Taking Hinata's hand, the pair ran for the storage shed. Reaching it, they heard the door to the school behind them be smashed open and the monster continued to follow them. Reaching the door to the supply shed, Naruto yanked the door open and hustled Hinata inside before following and shutting the door. Inside the shed was a number of lockers and desks along with tumbling mats, sacks of sports balls, and some spare equipment for students who forgot to bring some sports days.

"Wh-where are we s-supposed to hide?" asked Hinata timidly.

"We don't," Naruto answered as he bgean tossing the desks and chairs out of the way. "We climb out the back window. I call it the Fake Out. The teachers think I hid in here after pulling a prank when I actually climbed out the window and escaped.

Reaching the far wall, Naruto reached the window to slide it open, but his heart sank when he saw a padlock keeping the window shut, "Oh crap. One of the teachers must have figured this one out! They locked it and I don't have the key!"

"Eep!" Hinata gulped, growing pale. "S-s-so what do we d-d-do?"

"Gonna have to hide," Naruto frowned. Looking around, he spied a row of lockers which were lined up against the wall. "The lockers! Go!"

Clearing a path through the supplies, Naruto reached one of the lockers which had a big sticker of a kind of rocket with a pair of red eyes and a black face with antennae on the forhead. Grabbing the handle, he yanked the door open in preparation of giving Hinata a place to hide when instead of the back of the locker…

…he found a tunnel of light.

"What the…?" he gasped.

"Ah?" Hinata gaped, coming up behind Naruto to see the bright tunnel. "Wh-what is it?"

"Dunno," Naruto blinked, but then remembered what they were running from. "But I'd take it over the monster that's coming after us! Let's move!"

With a gentle nudge, Hinata ducked into the tunnel of light and Naruto followed after her with the locker door shutting after them.

The light almost blinded the pair, but they kept moving to try and put some distance between themselves and the monster that was hunting them. As they moved closer to wherever the tunnel ended, a doorway in front of them opened like something out of a sci-fi show. Naruto and Hinata passed through the doorway and collapsed onto what felt like a metal floor. Turning to see the doorway they had come from, Naruto spotted a panel next to it with a green button and a red button with the green one lit up. Scrambling to the panel, Naruto hit the red button, making it light up and causing the doorway to slide shut.

"Ha! I'd like to see you get through that!" Naruto grinned, slapping the metal door. Dropping onto his back on the floor, he let out a laughing sigh of relief. "Whew! Are we in luck or what?"

"N-Naruto-kun…"

"Hm?" Naruto blinked, turning to see what Hinata was talking about.

He blinked as he realized that they were in what looked like for all intents and purposes a space station common room. Everything looked extremely high tech and there were several more metal doors leading to other stations while a circular table was in the middle of the room. It looked exactly like Naruto had seen about space stations and such he had read about in books. However, Hinata's gaze wasn't on any of the equipment, but on the sole window looking outside.

Where the earth hung in the dark sky over the gray expanse of what Naruto recognised as the surface of the moon.

"No…way…" he gasped.

"We're…we're in…space," Hinata breathed. "We're on the moon!"

"Oh man!" Naruto gasped, running up to the window so he could see everything he could through the glass. "Those guys in the astronomy club were right! Space is awesome, dattebayo!"

"Sugoi," Hinata admired.

BREET! BREET! BREET!

Alarms suddenly sounded off, snapping Naruto and Hinata out of their awe as red lights in the walls began to sound off. Both of them were worried that they had inadvertently set off some kind of security system which was about to disintegrate them or something. Hinata whimpered and stood closer to Naruto who had stepped forward to shield her from whatever might come.

"ATTENTION! ZODIARTS SIGNATURE DETECTED NEAR ENTRY PORTAL! SHUTTING DOWN PORTAL FOR SAFETY MEASURES! COMPUTER TECHNICIAN PLEASE REPORT TO OBSERVATION ROOM!"

A hissing noise alerted Naruto and Hinata to movement ans they turned to see that a door had opened. Curious, they moved to the room in questions to find several monitors and keyboards depicting technology and suits of some sort. However, one of the monitors revealed the inside of the storage room where the monster that had been chasing them was trashing everything. Curious, the two students found some seats in the provided chairs in front of the computers.

"_Where are you?-!_" the monster demanded, yanking open all of the lockers before trashing everything in the room to try and find out where the pair had gone. "_You can't hide from me!_"

"Okay, just what is that thing anyway?" asked Naruto, grimacing at the destruction. "Just what is its beef with us?"

"I-I don't know," Hinata trembled, frightened by the rage of the thing. Glancing at the screen, she saw an icon in the corner which was flashing. Curious, and hoping that it might help them she took control of the mouse connected to the monitor and clocked on the icon. The screen was imeediately segmented into dozens of green squares. All of the squares which the monster occupied were highlighted while zooming in on the creature itself.

_Scanning subject._

…

…

…

_Scan complete._

_Subject: Heracles Zodiarts_

_Model #: 01_

_Power Levels: Minimal_

_Last One: Dormant_

"Zodiarts?" Naruto blinked as he and Hinata read the readout the computer made of the monster. "What the heck is that?"

"I don't know," Hinata frowned. Moving the mouse icon, she highlighted the word Zodiart and clicked on it. The screen of the rampaging monster was replaced with a data screen filled with words and diagrams of what looked like a handheld clicker with a button on top and wire-like designs around its side.

"It says here that Zodiarts are actually…people?-!" Hinata gasped.

"Wait, that thing is human?-!" Naruto gaped.

"Yes," Hinata nodded, reading over the data. "Zodiarts are humans who are infused with something called…Cosmic Energy. A person needs to have something called a Zodiarts Switch to become one. When they activate it, the Cosmic Energy forms around them and transforms them into that monster," she read. "All of the Zodiarts seem to derive their abilities and forms from constellations. So that means no two are going to be the same."

"Is there any way to stop them?" asked Naruto, looking over Hinata's shoulder. The close proximity made the girl blush as she tried to concentrate on what she was being asked.

"U-um…maybe. Hold on," Tapping a few keys, she questioned the computers about any possible countermeasures which could stop a Zodiart. After a moment, the screen turned blank and static filled it up. "Ah! Oh no!"

"What? What is it?" asked NAruto, grimacing as he figured that something went wrong. "What happened?"

"I don't know!" Hinata cried, tapping a few keys. "I just asked if there was any means to counter Zodiarts and this happened!"

"_BZZZZRT! The date is BZZZRT! My name is Minato BZZZRTT! I am a scientist working for the OSTO on the development and use of Cosmic Energy. We had initially developed a means of enhanced human power and dubbed it the Zodiarts Program_." The screen flashed as the image of a blonde man with blue eyes in a scientist uniform appeared on the screen, but many of his features were hard to discern because of the low resolution. "_Because of the catastrophic potential of the Zodiarts in the wrong hands, I ordered the program shut down. However, a member of the team betrayed us and stole all of the Zodiarts Switches we developed before fleeing back to Earth. The majority of the Lunar Base as been destroyed save for the Rabbit Hutch where we did our main observation, testing, and Switch construction. After –BRRZT- ran off, destroyed the majority of the base and left us to die, we who survived began developing a countermeasure to the Zodiarts which could be put into effect once rescue comes. It's a device which harnesses the Cosmic Energy in the forms of armour and weapons rather than infusing the body with it. It should be the perfect countermeasure to the Zodiarts_."

"Okay…" Naruto nodded, sounding impatient. "But where is it? How do we use it?"

"_If you're watching this, then you have come specifically to find a means of countering the Zodiarts. The video file you are watching right now is releasing a high sound which should activate the secret chamber which is hiding the countermeasure. We call it the Fourze Driver. Instructions for it should be with it_."

Almost as if on cue, another hissing noise sounded off, catching Naruto and Hinata's attention. Turning to the source, they saw a hidden chamber in the nearby workbench open up before a tray rose up to reveal which looked like a large buckle made of a sky blue space-age material. The centre had some kind of black screen while on either side were two slots made for something with red switches underneath each slot. On the far right was a silver handle which looked like it may activate some kind of ignition.

Next to the bench a hidden wall panel opened to reveal a black boared willed with forty slots, each marked with a number. However, only the first eight were filled with what appeared to be coloured switches.

"I suppose…that's it," Hinata gulped.

"Okay!" Naruto nodded. Striding forward, he grabbed the Fourze Driver and found that beneath it was a small pile of papers which served as the machine's instruction manual. Hinata likewise stood up and reached for the instructions to see how to use the machine. "So, any idea how to use this thing?"

"Hmm," Hinata pondered, flipping through the papers. Luckily there were crude diagrams to help describe the function of the device. It was honestly a record for her to be around Naruto this long without getting flustered, but the severity of the situation wasn't lost on her and it helped make sure she kept her mind on the situation rather than her crush. "It says here we need to use the Astro Switches to prime the system."

"Astro Switches?" Naruto blinked. He looked to the panel with the eight switches on it. "You mean these things with the numbers on them?"

"Yes," Hinata nodded, looking through the papers. "The manual suggests using the switches marked one, two, three, and four."

"Gotcha," Naruto nodded. Looking to the eight switches, he grabbed the four in question from their slots. Bringing them to the Driver, he stopped and looked back to Hinata, "Um, which one goes where?""

"Let to right in ascending order," the Hyuuga heiress answered. "Right," the blonde nodded. He then stuck the switches into their proper slots. "What about the other ones?"

"Ummm," Hinata replied, flipping through the papers until she found a page depicting the functions of the other switches. "You can bring two extra switches with you since the belt has a sub-space pocket option."

"Sub-space what?" Naruto blinked, looking up at the girl. The sight of Naruto looking directly at her made Hinata flush and struggle to get an answer out, but then dawning apprehension came to the blonde's eyes. "Oh wait, is it like hammer space like anime girls have when they bring out huge hammers to whack guys with?"

Hinata blinked. "Um…yes?"

"Okay, I get it now! Cool!" Naruto nodded. "So which of the others should I bring?"

"I-I think number seven and number six, just to be safe" Hinata replied. Naruto nodded and grabbed the switches before sticking them into his pocket. "N-Naruto-kun, are you sure you should be doing this?"

"You heard the guy on the computer, these Zodiarts things are way too dangerous," Naruto frowned. "Do you honestly think that the police or campus security stand a chance? This Fourze Driver is the only thing that can stop them. I've got to do this or else a lot of people are going to get hurt."

Hinata felt her heart skip a beat as she saw once again one of the things which made Naruto so special in her mind. A lot of people called him a delinquent, but that was only because he got into trouble a lot. Not once had Naruto pulled his pranks out of any sort of maliciousness. He pulled them for a simple amusement factor and never did anyone get hurt. Sure some property was vandalized in the process but all of it was easily fixed and never permanent. Naruto's sense of right and wrong was in fact very strong would never permit him to hurt others or let others be hurt.

"O-o-okay," Hinata stuttered, feeling like her crush was being born all over again.

"Good," Naruto nodded. "Is that thing still out there?"

Hinata stiffly turned back to the computer, which had the recorded video descending into static again. Closing it down, she managed to figure out how to bring up the images of the supply room where Heracles Zodiarts had been rampaging. Much to her relief, the monster was gone even if the rest of the room had been trashed.

"He's gone," she reported.

"Good," Naruto nodded. "You stay here where it's safe. That thing's been freaking you out even if you were here. You've been stuttering and getting flushed ever since we got here." As Naruto turned away, Hinata flushed more at having been called out on her nervousness.

Naruto exited the control room and headed back to the door which led back to Earth. Slapping the green button, the door opened to reveal the tunnel of light once again. Steeling himself, Naruto walked forward through the tunnel of light and back to the locker which he and Hinata had escaped from the Zodiarts. Stepping out into the supply room he saw that the damage was indeed severe. Whoever the Zodiarts was he had been angry and destroyed everything except for a few items. Lucky the lockers hadn't been one of them or else he and Hinata would have been trapped on the moon.

"I'd better not get blamed for this," Naruto muttered. A few of the teachers, like Mizuki-sensei, would have been all too happy to blame him for the mess and petition Tsunade to expel him on grounds of malicious destruction of property.

Exiting from the supply room, Naruto tried to spy anything funny going on. He knew Zodiarts were actually people so for all he knew the guy using the Switch had changed back to normal and was hidden in plain sight.

'_Okay, play it cool and see if you can't find this jerk,_' Naruto thought to himself, sticking his hands in his pockets and walking towards the school. If the thing was hunting Hinata like he thought then he probably wasn't going to give up and go home just yet. If he was willing to turn himself into a monster for the sake of nabbing her, then he definitely wasn't going to give up.

Naruto travelled thought he school to try and see if he could get any clues, but it wasn't easy. He could already see where the monster had been since it had destroyed portions of the walls in its attempts to chase him and Hinata. The police were going to have to get involved unless the guy who did it was caught. Naruto feared that he would be blamed for the destruction. He had been one of the people at the school after hours and he had a history of bad behaviour. A few people would feel safe in blaming him.

"Come on pal, where are you?" Naruto frowned as he walked around the side of the school.

Coming out to the front of the school, Naruto spied one of his fellow students waiting at the gates. Normally it was nothing new, but Naruto's danger senses were going off like crazy. Having gotten into more than his fair share of fights over the years, the blonde boy developed a sense of people's intentions towards him. It sort of helped him determine if thugs on the streets were after him or teachers wanted a word with him. Right now, he senses were telling him that the boy at the gates of the school wished nothing but death on him.

The student was dressed in the usual Konoha Uniform and his features were clear, clean, and well-groomed. Aside from the sheer animosity coming off of him, he just gave off the feeling of 'rich kid' that many of the students in the school were in possession of. Obviously he was somebody that had a lot of cash in his pocket and thought he was a big deal because of it.

Naruto ran into guys like him at least once a day and always did something to piss them off without even trying.

"About time you showed up coward!" the boy snapped. "I was wondering when you'd get the guts to try and leave the school."

"Dude, what's your beef with me?" asked Naruto. He didn't bother to try and play stupid "Just who the heck are you?"

"My name is Tomi Kakisonji!" the boy snapped. "And my 'beef' with you as you put it, is the fact that a veritable princess such as Hinata Hyuuga is giving her attention to an undeserving punk like you!"

"…what?" Naruto blinked. This guy was ticked at Naruto because Hinata paid more attention to the blonde than the spoiled rich kid? Naruto and Hinata were in the same freaking class! Sure, they never seemed to talk much but he'd spotted her glancing his way now and then. Of course he'd garner more attention from her than some guy froma different class.

"Flowers, chocolates, poetry, I gave her everything a girl would want in a potential suitor!" Tomi growled. "Despite all this, she continued to turn me down in favour of paying attention to you! Why? What made you so damn special?"

Naruto scratched his cheek, "Maybe she just didn't want a boyfriend?"

"UGH!" Tomi snarled, "Even now you don't get how lucky you are! I'm sick of you bumbling along with Hinata wasting her attention on you! I'm going to destroy you and show her that there is no one more perfect for her than me!"

Naruto frowned and reached into his jacket. This rant was sounding familiar and his instincts were telling him that he had just found the Zodiarts that had been hunting for him and Hinata. His guess had been proven right when Tomi revealed a switch in his hand which was black with gold designs on the sides. The top was domed and coloured silver with a red button coming out of the top.

"Don't do it man!" Naruto called. "That thing will mess you up!"

"Bah! Words of an idiot!" Tomi shouted back. "An idiot who is unworthy of the graces that someone superior to him is showing him! This power will help me make Hinata see the error of her ways!"

As if in response to his spoiled and somewhat delusional rant, the Zodiarts Switch in his hand flashed with dark energy which looked a little like an empty void of space. The gold designs on the side vanished as spikes emerged from the casing. The domed top took on the form of a bloodshot eye while the switch moved closer to the rim of the dome, making it look like an eye on top of the switch. More shocking, it spoke! "**Last One!**"

"Huh?" Naruto blinked.

Tomi pressed his thumb into the switch and suddenly a black void enveloped his body. From it, several bright lights which took the form of the constellation Heracles appeared. From the middle of the void, Tomi's body fell out, covered in a web-like substance. Meanwhile, the orbs of light flew into the void and became the Heracles Zodiart, but this time he was holding what looked like a giant sword made of stone.

"Aw crap!" Naruto cursed.

"_**Now I'll kill you and take what's mine!**_" the Zoidarts bellowed as it began running at him.

The Zodiarts charged at Naruto with its weapon raised, filled with lethal intent. The blonde boy dove out of the way as the sword smashed into the ground, creating a crater three times the size of the edge of the blade. Getting to his feet, Naruto reacged into his jacket and pulled out the Fourze Driver. Bringing it to his waist, he felt a belt wrap around him and secure the object into place. Reaching to the device, he flipped the four red switches, hearing some kind of noise like a rocket engine coming to life while the screen in the centre of the belt lit up with the image of an armoured being with a blue torso and red limbs. Standing up across from the Zodiarts, he clenched his left fist in front of him while his right hand grabbed the handle on the side of the Driver.

"**THREE…**"

"**TWO…**"

"**ONE…**"

"Henshin!" Naruto called out loudly, pressing the handle forward into its drive position. A ring of metal appeared in a flash of light around his wait before it raised into the air and showed Naruto with white light. Wireframe lines appeared over Naruto, covering him with a suit of armour which solidified into an actual suit. Once the energy had formed completely, the ring vanished and the light died down to reveal Naruto within his complete suit.

The entre suit was white and appeared to me made of a material which had wire mesh in it, making it look like a space suit of some sort. The torso had orange lines running down the sides with black on the shoulders. The shoulders themselves were silver on the front with black on the rest. His arms and legs were covered with white mechanical gauntlets each with their own decoration. His right arm was adorned with an orange circle, right leg with a blue x, left leg with a yellow triangle, and his left arm with a black square. Finally his head was covered in a white helmet which was pointed with a black face, large orange eyes, short silver antennae with a green stone were on the forehead. At the sides on the jaw line were small wings like off a space ship. On his back was a small propulsion pack, like a rocket exhaust.

Naruto Uzumaki had become Fourze!

"_**What?-!**_" the Zodiarts gasped.

"Alright!" Fourze cheered. Gripping his fists in front of his face, he spread them out above his head like a cheer. "SPACE IS AWESOME, DATTEBAYO!"

His cheer for the awesome space tech done, Fourze turned his attention to the Zodiarts that had intended to kill him. Clenching his fists, he charged at his opponent, unafraid for anything that may come. The Heracles Zodiarts wasn't idle as it swung wide at him with its blade, but Fourze stuck with his instincts and ducked under the blow before slamming his fist into the beast's stomach. This time, there was a grunt as air was forced from the Zodiarts' lungs while the strength of the blow knocked it back several paces.

"_**You…you hurt me!**_" it gasped out in shock. "_**Nothing should be able to hurt me like this!**_"

"News flash jerk! I'm the new anti-Zodiarts on campus!" Fourze boasted. He raised his fist and pointed his thumb down on the ground. "And you are going down!"

Fourze charged again and kicked the Zodiarts in the shoulder knocking it back several more steps. Now that his suit was evening the playing field, Fourze was finding that strength was the only thing that the Zodiart had going for it. It didn't seem to know how to fight beyond punching and kicking, didn't seem to have any experience, and didn't know any set style either. The white armoured teen may not have had training either, but he had a lot of experience in fighting punks who tried to cause trouble near his school and he was putting every ounce of it into fighting this monster.

"HI-YAH!" Fourze bellowed, slugging the Heracles Zodiarts in the face and knocking it away. "Okay, now hand over the Switch and-!"

*RING-RING! RING-RING!*

"Huh?" Fourze looked down to his belt where he heard the sound coming from and he spotted the number 4 switch on the belt had a blinking light. Confused, and unsure of what to do, he touched the item in question and flipped the switch for it.

"_**RA-DAR-ON!**_"

An orb of gray energy appeared over Fourze's left arm before it generated wireframe images of machine parts which attached to the black square section. The pieces then solidified into what appeared to be an arm-mounted radar dish. The arm bracket even had a viewing screen which lit up to reveal Hinata's face. "_Naruto-kun!_"

"Hinata? Is that you?" Fourze blinked, looking at the screen.

"_Yes it is!_" the girl nodded. "_When you activated the suit all of these monitors activated and began tracking your status. I managed to figure out how to contact you from here!_"

"Hey, cool!" Fourze nodded. He was interrupted slightly when the Heracles Zodiarts charged at him, screaming about 'his Hinata' again before Fourze dodged him like a matador before kicking his butt literally, sending him sprawling. "Hey Hinata, something weird happened with this guy. When he used his switch, it changed. Then it said the words 'last one' before he transformed, but his real body fell out all covered with webs or something. Is that normal?"

"_Let me check,_" Hinata answered before her image could be seen turning to a monitor. After a moment, which Fourze had since the Zodiarts' muscles were keeping it from getting up too quickly, Hinata gasped in shock. "_This is bad Naruto-kun! The Switch is now in its Last One phase. It means that the Switch has absorbed all of the Cosmic Power it can and can now manifest all of its powers. The host's consciousness is now trapped inside of the Zodiarts body while his true form is left in a stasis-like state. He's stuck that way now!_ "

"Crap," Fourze growled, turning to see the Heracles Zodiarts back on its feet. "Any way to change him back?"

"_Well, yes but it requires a Limit Break from your Fourze Driver to strike exactly where the Switch is inside of the Zodiarts body._" Hinata reported.

"How do I do that?" Fourze cried, getting ready to fight as the Zodiarts raised its sword.

"_Turn off the Radar Module and replace the Switch with the Camera Switch! Number 6!_" Hinata replied.

"Gotcha!" Fouze nodded. Reaching to his belt, he turned off Switch 4 which caused the machine on his left arm to vanish. Reaching behind his back, Fourze felt his hand enter some kind of weird pocket before grabbing something solid. Bringing his hand back, he found himself holding Switch 6. Nodding, he removed the 4th Switch and placed it in the void while slipping #6 into place, making the belt speak, "_Camera!_" Switch secured, Fourze flipped it on.

"_**CAM-ER-A-ON!**_" the belt announced before another orb of light appeared over Fourze's left arm and formed an arm-mounted machine which had a powerful photographic lens.

The Heracles Zodiarts bellowed and charged again, using Naruto's distraction with his equipment against him. The Armored teen looked up only to be struck with several hundred pounds of angry Kaijin. The Zodiarts pushed him along before they both crashed into the side of the school building, cratering the wall.

"_**Die, die, die, die, die!**_" the Zodiarts bellowed, trying to crush Fourze with his weight.

"HRG! OW! Leggo you creep!" Fourze shouted. Struglling, he brought his free arm down to his belt where the other three switches were. He had to have something useful to help him! His fingers found one of the switches and with no other recourse, pressed it.

"_**ROCK-ET-ON!**_"

An orange orb appeared over Fourze's right arm before forming into a large orange rocket which completely covered his right arm. The afterburners of the rocket then came to life and with so much force both Fourze and the Zodiarts were propelled straight into the sky.

"WOOOOOOAAAAHHH!"

"_**AUUUUUUUUUUUGH!**_"

The pair flew, swerved, ducked, and spiralled through the air as Fourze had absolutely no control over his own weapon at the moment. One particularly gusty spin managed to dislodge the Zodiarts and send it crashing down to the ground below, in the middle of the track field. Panicking, Fourze managed get his hands on Switch #1 and turn it off, causing the rocket to vanish. Gravity took hold and sent the armored teen plummeting, but instead of going splat the pack on his back began shooting air out of its vents which slowed down the fall considerable. Fourze landed on the ground at a crouch before standing up, "Whew. Thought I was a goner there for a while."

"_**Ow…**_"

Fourze turned to spy the Heracles Zodiarts pulling itself out of the small crater it formed with his body. Not one to miss an opportunity, Fourze raised his Camera Module and pointed its lens at the Zodiarts. The machine quickly came to life and began making beeping noises as it took in data about the kaijin and its abilities. When it was completed, it chimed to alert its wielder to the face.

"Okay, now to see what Hinata says," Fourze nodded. Switching off the Camera Switch, he popped it out to swap for the Radar Switch.

"_Radar!_"

*CLICK!*

"_**RA-DAR-ON!**_"

The Radar Module appeared once again and with it came the image of Hinata's face, "Hinata, did you manage to find out where the Switch is?"

"_I did Naruto-kun!_" Hinata reported. "_It's in the chest cavity where his heart is supposed to be. But there's a problem!_"

"What? Another one?" Fourze groaned. "What is it?"

"_When a Zodiarts is in its Last One stage, it's body is so full of Cosmic Energy it's like a living bomb!_" Hinata explained. "_If you destroy it at the school, the explosion will be so big we'd be lucky to only lose the entire track, if not a good portion of the school! You need to get it someplace wide open!_"

Fourze frowned behind his helmet, but then got an idea, "Or up in the air." Before Hinata could ask what Fourze was talking about, he switched off the Radar Switch and went for the Rocket Switch again. "_**ROCK-ET-ON!**_"

The Rocket Module appeared and burst to life a second time. This time, Fourze aimed it properly and was sent hurtling towards the groaning Zodiarts. Adjusting his flight, the Rider dipped low and almost scraped the ground before he rose back up, catching the Zodiarts in the chest with the nose of the rocket. Catching his prey, Fourze turned his arm up as both Rider and kaijin sailed into the air. The city below soon became like a patchwork blob of gray and green as they soared past the clouds and even levels most airplanes would fly at. The sky began to darken as they reached the upper parts of the atmosphere, but both of them seemed fine in terms of breathing. Seeing he was high enough, Fourze shook his arm and dislodged the Heracles Zodiarts from it, letting it begin its long fall back to Earth.

Rising higher, Fourze reached to his belt and grabbed Switch #3, giving it a twist, "_**DRILL-ON!**_"

A yellow orb appeared over Fourze's left leg before becoming encased in yellow machinery with a large steel drill where his foot should have been. The machine instantly came to life and spun with rapid speeds. Furze then readjusted his flight pattern and began flying back down with the drill pointed at the Zodiart. Using his free hand, he gripped the lever on the right and gave it another tug to activate it.

"_**ROCKET-DRILL-LIMIT BREAK!**_"

Fourze's speed instantly went into overdrive as the rocket's propulsion was pushed to ridiculous levels. The drill likewise began spinning at a speed which would have it mistaken for a diamond cutter. His attack prepped, Fourze dove at the falling Zodiarts which could do nothing but watch him fly towards him.

"ROCKET DRILL KICK!" Fourze bellowed as his Drill Module impacted against the Zodiarts' heart. The monster gave out a scream as the drill dug into its flesh like a hot knife through butter. The kaijin's body lit up like a miniature star before it exploded like several thousand pounds of T.N.T. Fourze's body seemed to take the force in stride as he passed through its, his Drill and Rocket Switches turning themselves off as a side effect of the Limit Break. However, that was unfortunately a problem in itself since it left Naruto to begin falling towards Earth.

"Ahhhh! I'm falling! I'm falling!" Fourze screamed, his mind too far gone to mind about stating the obvious. Reaching to his belt, he accessed the pocket which allowed him to hold his two extra Switches. He had to have brought something that could help! Grabbing the first Switch he felt, he pulled it out to see it was #7…and it had an image of a parachute on it! "I'm saved!" His HUD revealed it was for his left arm so he took out his Radar Switch and popped #7 into its place.

"_Parachute!_"

*CLICK!*

"_**PA-RA-CHUTE-ON!**_"

A green module appeared on Fourze's arm before three bundles of fabric burst from the wrist end of it and dragged Fourze's arm up before they unfolded into three parachutes with green lining on them.

"Oh…man…that was too close," Fourze sighed in relief. "I'm gonna have to thank Hinata-chan for suggesting this one."

* * *

Back on the ground, Tomi gasped as his consciousness returned to his body. Groaning in pain, he began tearing the webbing from his body.

"That…bastard," he grunted.

* * *

Fourze managed to steer himself back to Konoha Gakuen and landed on the ground at the track circle. The parachutes lost their lift and collapsed as he hit the ground. Panting, he turned off the Parachute Switch which allowed the Parachute Arm to vanished. Sighing in relief, his HUD suddenly blinked to life and honed in on something which was a few feet away from the crater. Confused, Fourze trotted over to it and frowned once he got a good view. Inside of a small crater of its own and smoking from such a long fall was the Heracles Zodiarts Switch. Fourze reached down and picked the offending item up, feeling some heat through his glove.

"Now what to do with you?" he wondered, gripping the item. "Maybe Hinata-chan will know."

Looking about, Fourze saw that no one had come to inspect all of the noise yet. So he dashed for the supply shed where the portal to the moon station. Entering the shed, he moved through the debris and to the locker with the sticker that looked like his helmet. Finding it, he opened the door to reveal the bright tunnel and slipped inside. Walking through, he emerged inside the Rabbit Hutch once again.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata called, dashing out into the common area. Spotting the armoured teen, she dashed up to him and began examining him for injuries. "Are you okay? I was alble to see the explosion from here!"

"I'm okay Hinata-chan," Fourze insisted, making Hinata blink and turn pink at such a familiar means of speaking to her. Of course, he didn't notice as he raised his hand to reveal the Zodiarts Switch. "Do you think you can tell me what to do with this thing? It fell out of the sky after I destroyed the Zodiarts."

"Ah…oh! Right!" Hinata nodded, trying to keep her mind on the situation. "Well, according to the notes, if you press the Switch while you're in the suit it will cause the energy to react and make the Switch implode in on itself like a black hole."

"Cool," Fourze nodded. Gripping the Switch, he tapped the red button to deactivate the item. The reaction was instantly as the Switch was enveloped in dark power before it collapsed in on itself, vanishing from Fourze's hand. "Wow…"

"Thank goodness," Hinata sighed in relief. The nightmare was over now.

Slumping with relief, Fourze reached to his belt and shut down all four of the red switches and removed the belt. The protective suit suddenly vanished from his body, reverting him back to ordinary Uzumaki Naruto, "Whew! Glad that's over." Sticking his hands in his pockets, he smiled at Hinata, "I'm glad you were here to help me out. I was clues about what to do and I would have hit like a water balloon on the ground after I beat that thing."

Hinta flushed and turned pink, retreating to her childhood habit of playing with her fingers while looking at her feet, "O-oh, i-i-it's nothing. I j-j-just wanted to h-help."

"I'll say you did," Naruto nodded. "Say, want to grab some ramen with me? I'll pay. I'd say we deserve some after everything we've gone through today!"

'_A d-d-d-date?-! With N-N-Naruto-kun?-!_' Hinata thought to herself in near panic. It was by this point that all of the stress of the day and the nervousness she had been suppressing from being around Naruto in such close quarters finally caught up with her and her automatic response finally kicked in.

She fainted.

* * *

Inside what could only be called a darkened office, eleven figures could be seen circles around a desk with a twelfth figure sitting behind it. The eleven figures were obviously inhuman and were dressed in gold and black robes which had red designs that looked akin to clouds on them.

"_One of the Switches has been deactivated,_" one of the figures commented.

"I am aware of this_,_" the figure at the desk nodded. "Something forced it to deactivate did it not?"

"_Yes,_" nodded a figure with insect-like features.

"Then go and find out what did it," the desk figure ordered. "That is all."

The eleven figures nodded before they vanished into the darkness. This left the man at the desk alone. As he sat there though, his eyes began to glow an ominous red colour.

"Could it be?" he muttered. "Did they complete a countermeasure?"

**To Be Continued…**

* * *

**A/N: Okay everyone, here's my foray into the Kamen Rider Fourze fanfiction. I decided to go with Naruto since seeing him and the Konoha 12 as high school students is a popular idea and I wanted to show off my take on it.**

**For some info, here's a breakdown of the five main prefectures**

**Hinokuni Prefecture: A civic centre and probably the most advanced technologically. It's the place for the latest in everything and anyone who is anyone would wan to live there. Many rich families send their kids to Konoha Gakuen for the best education that money can buy.**

**Kazenokuni Prefecture: What used to be a thriving tourist hotspot filled with beaches, hiking trails, desert runs, and other sporting events and the like has now come under hard times. Investors have been turning their attentions to the commerce and economy of Hinokuni so Kazenokuni has been suffering. It's best school is known as Suna High School and has a good history of athletics such as track and field events. However, due to the depression everything has been getting budget cuts.**

**Mizunokuni Prefecture: A somewhat politically unstable area which has just underwent a revolution of sorts and is now run by Mei Terumi who keeps an eye on all public facilities to make sure the previous racist and corrupted regime is truly dead and gone. Kiri Academy is a rough place to be, but it's slowly getting better and on its way to reclaiming its glory in its swimming competitions and academics.**

**Tsuchinokuni Prefecture: A mining prefecture where the largest deposits of raw minerals for products can be found. It's a paranoid place with border patrols and harsh discipline since many, many times groups have attempted to steal what the miners have collected and paid for it. The school Iwa High boasts some of the most artistic minds in the fields of sculpting, painting, and metallurgy.**

**Kaminarunokuni Prefecture: A militaristic prefecture where most of the military families tend to gravitate. The prefecture is responsible for weapons factories which produce the equipment all of the law keepers be they law enforcement or military use. The Kumo Military School helps cultivate the next generation of military which sports the lowest number of delinquents in all of the schools.**

**More on Oto, Ame, Kusa, Taki, and others to come.**


	16. Ghost Rider to Vampire

**I do not own Rosario to Vampire or Ghost Rider. Those things belong to Akihisa Ikeda and Stan Lee. The only character I do own is Barton Blaze (the OC, not Johnny's father). Everything else is copyrighted.**

**Ghost Rider to Vampire**

**By Ten-Faced Paladin**

**Chapter 1: Blaze to Vampire**

The city of Tokyo, Japan was as bustling as ever. Like every major city it had movers and shakers, pedestrians, police, and the average joes who would be just killing some tine, waiting for their friends, next party, job, or whatnot. It was still early morning though, so not as many people were around as there could have been on an average. It just seemed like an ordinary, average day.

"Why the bloody hell do all the streets have to be so complicated?"

Resting on a parking spot at the side of the road was a young man who was mounted on a motorcycle. An American chopper to be specific, styled with chrome fittings, and a blue gas tank decorated with flames. It was polished to perfection and looked like it was brand new. Even more impressive was the fact that even though it was obvious that it had been driven, the tires hadn't collected even a bit of dirt or dust. There wasn't even a sign of wear or tear on them.

The young man who was sitting on the bike was somewhat of an irregularity in the Asian city. He was Caucasian with a hint of a darker skin tone, although if it was from mixed ancestry or constant exposure to the sun it was hard to say. He was wearing a black leather jacket which was left unzipped with a white shirt underneath with a pair of jeans and cowboy boots. Unlike the bike, the young man's clothes showed signs of dust and wear of long amounts of travelling. His eyes were covered with sunglasses and a blue helmet decorated with red flames. His hair was slightly shaggy, coloured dark brown, almost black. His last sentence hinted at a Texas accent, although it was faint from exposure to other ways of speaking.

His name was Barton Blaze. He was the son of the famous daredevil bike rider Johnny Blaze, named after his grandfather. His mother was the former newscaster Roxanne Simpson, and the long time love of his father. Barton's parents didn't live together, Johnny having gone to travel across America while Roxanne lived her life in Texas, raising Barton as best as she could. It was doubtful that Johnny even knew that he had a son, Roxanne not having told him since they hadn't seen one another since the night in which Barton had been conceived. Being the technically illegitimate son of a celebrity had brought some scorn to Barton's life and a lot of people who were hoping to cash in on him when they found out who his father was. Still, there was one thing which Barton got from his father that not cash, fame, or benefits could ever compare to.

'**I smell sinners!**' a deep voice, almost as if the throat of the owner was burned almost beyond use.

'_Shut up Zarathos!_' Barton snapped at the voice inside of his mind.

Barton had originally lived in Texas for a good portion of his life. However, after he graduated from junior high, he decided that he wanted to do something, anything, before he started high school…if he would start at all. Barton couldn't often trust himself around people, especially the kind of was liable to do bad things just because they felt like it or because it was funny. School kids tended to do that sort of thing during instances such as jocks picking on weaker kids or spoiled girls belittling others. Barton himself wasn't liable to do anything, but Zarathos on the other hand…

Taking the imitation of his father's motorcycle, Barton headed out on a road trip to try and figure out what his next move was. He knew it was going to worry his mother, but he really didn't have much of a choice. Junior High had been filled with close scrapes with the kinds of people Zarathos loved to deal with and almost causing chaos which could have turned Barton into an infamous face. So he decided to travel across a few states to see just what he could do. He really wasn't old enough to legally drive a motorcycle, but he had inherited his father's skill with them and so long as he stuck to the traffic rules and kept his helmet on, no one would think an underage driver was using the motorcycle. Getting around state troopers looking to make a bust was difficult though.

Barton had heard of a guy named Strange up in New York who had some experience with things such as Barton's 'Zarathos' problem. It had been Barton's plan to travel up there and try to see if he could talk to the man. He had even gotten around halfway between Texas and New York when something managed to catch his attention. At the hotel he had been staying at, he had received a letter written in fancy script on parchment of all things. Even stranger, it had been a letter of acceptance to a school he had never heard of before. Well, granted, it was in Japan, but still… Barton had been ready to disregard it as a prank, but when the letter wrote about his problem by name, it served to catch his interest. Since it came with a plane ticket and directions, Barton saw no real reason to say no.

One hell of a long plane trip and a strangely efficient travel service for his bike later, Barton had ended up in Tokyo. No one seemed to ask him for a passport and no one tried to stop him when he had arrived, so Barton figured that he was dealing with someone who was connected in a lot of the right ways. That in itself boded strange to him and that he should proceed with caution. Accepting assistance from someone he didn't know is what got his father into his own hellish situation.

Still looking at his map, Barton found the street name he was looking for. It was damn helpful that the maps which were available were written in English as were the street signs. Apparently Tokyo saw a lot of travellers and everything was written in both English lettering and Japanese characters.

Seeing the name he was looking for, Barton checked it against the place he was looking for in comparison to where he was, "Ah. There we go. Closer than I thought."

'**Let me have one sinner before we get there!**' Zarathos moaned out.

"I said shut up," Barton growled before he slipped his helmet back on. Gunning the ignition on his bike, he let the engine rev before heading out into the busy Tokyo streets.

The man simply known as the Bus Driver leaned patiently against his method of transportation and his main job, smoking his cigar. It was a few days before the new semester started at Youkai Academy and he'd have to pick up the students, both new and returningbut today was a special case. It wasn't every day that a place such as Youkai Academy got a student from overseas, but like it was mentioned before, this was a special case. Not many like Barton Blaze existed and him being so young, he needed some form of guidance lest his internal strife turn into a losing one for him and his inner problem became a problem for the rest of the world.

Taking another puff, the Bus Driver heard the sounds of a motorcycle engine rattling through the morning air. The noise itself would have more than a few of the locals complaining, but luckily they weren't going to hear it more than once that day if Blaze decided that the offer he was going to receive was to his liking. Looking down the road, he saw a very nice motorcycle with a helmeted rider dressed in leather and denim approaching. The vehicle slowed down before coming to a stop, allowing the rider to take a look at the Driver.

"You the guy from Youkai Academy?" he asked, speaking passable Japanese.

"I am," the Bus Driver nodded. He had to admit that the kid learned fast. Maybe his 'problem' had something to do with it or perhaps he had managed to grab a phrasebook or two. He would have to ask when the time was appropriate.

"Well, here I am. Barton Blaze," the young man spoke, removing his helmet. The Driver raised an eyebrow, seeing that the boy was too young to be driving a motorcycle, but the kinds of people who went to Youkai tended to not care about that sort of thing. "So what the heck is so important you sprung for not only airfare for me, but also for my bike?"

"An offer," the Driver shrugged. "My boss would like a few words with you."

"Where is he then?" asked Barton.

"He's at the Academy, getting ready for the new semester," the Bus Driver answered. "He asked me to take you there. Normally I'd just let you hitch a ride with me, but it seems you have your own wheels. If you're interested, you can follow me. Just make sure to stick close or else you'll be lost and there are a huge number of places you can end up."

Barton frowned slightly, but simply nodded. Reaching into his jacket he produced a pair of studded leather gloves before pulling them onto his hands. Reaching to the backrest of his bike, he unwrapped what had seemed to have been an ornamental chain before whipping it around his torso. The Driver nodded in approval. The boy seemed to feel that he may be headed for trouble and was getting ready for anything. People who thought like that tended to make it a decent distance.

The Driver stepped onto his bus and landed in the driver's seat, hitting the ignition and bringing it into drive. Barton stuck his helmet onto the backrest before he revved the ignition, signalling his readiness to leave. Understanding the signal, the Driver put his vehicle into gear and set out onto the road. Barton stuck to him like glue, practically tailgating, but keeping a far enough distance so that he could have some distance to stop if it was needed.

The pair drove through the streets before coming to a tunnel. Without stopping, they drove into it but Barton could already tell that it was not a normal tunnel he was driving into. The shadows were too deep and the little light there was came out as an orchestra of colours. The Driver didn't seem hesitant as he kept going and Barton really didn't have a choice but to obey him since it seemed like turning back was not a good idea at the moment. Narrowing his eyes, Barton continued forward and tried to keep from being blindsided by anything which may cause him trouble.

The drive continued until a light came at the end of the tunnel, which the pair drove through. It blinded Barton for a moment before his eyes adjusted to the scene. All around him was a deep cloudy sky which looked grim. To his left was a forest thick with scraggly trees which looked more dead than alive and littered with numerous tombstones which dotted the landscape like underbrush. Barton was sure he could see bones along the way, and not animal ones either. On his right was a cliff which overlooked into an ocean that was red instead of blue, reminding the American boy of the colour of blood.

'**I like the scenery,**' Zarathos chuckled as Barton continued to drive. The teenager didn't make a reply.

The bus came to a stop next to what looked like a scarecrow mixed with a bus stop sign. Barton brought his motorcycle to a stop but kept the engine running. The rear lights of the bus blinked out before the driver stepped out, still smoking his cigar.

"This is as far as I can go kid," the Driver chuckled as he stepped closer to the motorcyclist. "The roads aren't made for my bus and I just am not made for hiking. Your bike shouldn't have any problems though. Just keep going on straight and you'll find the Academy. Someone will be there to greet you and guide you up to the headmaster's office."

"…fine then," Barton frowned. Gunning the acceleration, he turned onto the road once again. His bike gave a roar before he took off down the dirt path. He passed into a canopy of the scraggly trees and even more of the creepy tombstones and bones which were decorating the landscape before. Still, he came this far so he wasn't about to back out at this point when there seemed to be an answer to his Zarathos problem.

Coming out of the canopy, he spotted a building ahead which looked like a classical haunted house/gothic mansion but it wasn't run down or anything. It was surrounded by a wall which made the place look that much more foreboding. Coming across the entry, he spied a sign which was made of metal marked 'Youkai Academy'. Barton lifted an eyebrow, somewhat surprised that this was indeed the place that he had been to told to travel to. Turning through the gate, he drove towards the front doors since he didn't see any parking places. Moving closer to the school he spied another person waiting there.

This person waiting for him was an adult woman with long chestnut hair. She had a pretty face with round glasses and a beauty mark on her chin. She wore a white button up blouse which had the sleeves rolled back and a lot of her chest exposed. She wore a brief skirt with a lot her legs exposed with high heels, the tops of her fishnet stockings being exposed with. All in all, she was a real beauty and it made Barton blink at the sight. '_My god. Sexy teachers do exist outside of a porno!_"

'**Oh that is one hot fox, or should I say a sexy snake?**' Zarathos sneered, using Barton's eyes to ogle the woman.

"Bureizu Baton-kun?" she asked, having a bit of difficulty pronouncing his name in her native Japanese.

Shutting off his machine, Barton slipped his helmet off so to talk to her face to face, "Yes, that's me. Are you the one I was told would guide me around?"

"Yes, my name is Ririko Kagome. I'm the math teacher here," the woman explained. "Please follow me."

Dismounting his bike, Barton followed Ririko into the school. Of course, it was easy to follow her since her butt was in very fine form. They didn't speak, but Barton wasn't sure what they would talk about even if they did. The walked through the halls which indeed looked like a school rather than a mansion even if there seemed to be an underlying monster theme to a lot of the decorations which could be seen around the place. They climbed up a few flights of stairs until they reached what they had assumed to be one of the towers which were at the top of the school. He assumed that he was appearing before the boss since after Ririko brought him up another flight of stairs they ended up in front of a pair of double doors made of solid oak.

"The headmaster is behind these doors," the math teacher spoke. "Please mind your manners."

"My mother didn't raise a jackass," Barton sighed. Stepping past the sexy educator, he gripped the door handles before opening a door and stepping inside.

Inside was a deep dark office lit by actual torchlight with a large window at the opposite end with blood red curtains in front of it. In front of the window as a gothic and ornate desk which fit the dark and foreboding atmosphere which the building and scenery promoted. Sitting at the desk though was a man. He was dressed in robes similar to that of a priest, being white, a habit, and a cross hanging around his neck. The top half of his face was covered in shadow but his eyes were shining yellow with a strange power.

'**I don't like this prick,**' Zarathos growled.

'_That makes him okay in my book then,"_ Barton retorted. It was the guys which his inner demon found acceptable or amusing that put the motorcyclist on edge. If Zarathos didn't like him then he was likely someone good to know. Even the real bastards out there gave Zarathos better vibes than the truly good people. If the demon actually hated this guy, he had to be someone who was at least trustworthy. It helped take the guesswork out of deciding who he could trust with his friendship and/or his secrets.

"Welcome," the man smirked, a deep chuckle coming from his throat. "I'm glad to see that you were willing to come so far to listen to my proposal."

"When a dude from Japan sends a message all the way to America, somehow managing to catch me at the exact hotel that I was staying at it tends to catch my interest," Barton replied. "Just who the heck are you?"

"A fair question," the priest nodded. "My name is Tenmei Mikogami. I am an exorcist as well as the headmaster here at Youkai Academy…among other titles."

"An exorcist huh?" Barton raised an eyebrow. "You said you could help me out with my Zarathos problems?"

"Oh, we never refer to demons by name," Mikogami replied. "Names have power you know. If a demon's name becomes well-known, they become more powerful. Yours is still a newborn, derived from the power of the first Ghost Rider but that alone makes it frighteningly powerful in the first place. Saying its name so much will just help it grow in strength and power."

"…aw shit," Barton grumbled. He'd been saying the demon's name out loud ever since Zarathos had managed to achieve sentience and introduced himself. "Is there any way you can get rid of him?"

'**Aw, and here I thought we were best buddies,**' the demon laughed.

The exorcist shook his head, "Were your case just a simple possession or demonic infusion then it would be a somewhat simple matter. However, you were born with the demonic power inside of you. It's infused into your very being, part of your flesh and blood. It makes you what we would call a half-demon."

Frowning, Barton crossed his arms, "So then just how are you offering to help?"

"Training, education, all to help you control your power and other abilities," Mikogami replied. "Having someone with your unique skill set wandering around untrained is just asking for trouble. In other words, I'm offering you a place here in my school to continue your education and receive the training you need to master your abilities as well as those of your…dark side."

Barton had to ponder the offer, if he couldn't get rid of Zarathos then maybe getting some measure of control would be the next best thing. Still… "And you had to bring me to Japan to offer me all that?"

"Well, I am one of the premier experts and my staff is specifically trained," Mikogami shrugged. "You can say we're some of the best at what we do."

"Ah. So to get the job done right, get the best eh?" Barton nodded. "Okay, so I assume this is a school of some sort. Is it like that Xavier Institute that I heard about back home?"

"Well, we are a school that only accepts students who are…unique so I assume that there is something in common," the headmaster shrugged. "I would very much appreciate it if you would attend."

Barton scratched his head, pondering the offer further, "Will it give me the education I need both for my…problem and for when I graduate? Mom will kill me if I don't go to high school and be a drop out like my dad was."

"My school will give you everything a regular school can on top of the 'extra' education that you are going to need," Mikogami boasted. "All will be provided for as a scholarship of course. We have them for unfortunate students who have no place else to go or have special needs such as yourself."

Barton nodded, "okay then. I guess I can't afford to turn this down. Still, I smell anything funny then I am so gone."

"That's acceptable," Mikogami nodded. "Welcome to Youkai academy then, first year student Barton Blaze."

* * *

With Barton's acceptance of the headmaster's offer, he became an official student of Youkai Academy. True to his word, Mikogami supplied everything he would need for his classes from books, supplies, and his uniforms. Apparently Japanese schools required their students to attend classes in uniform rather than their casual clothes like most schools in America did. On one hand it was one less decision he had to make very day but Barton felt a little strange outside of his motorcycle outfit. He was even given choice selection of rooms in the student dormitories which got him a decent-sized room with a stove and a small fridge for preparing and keeping food.

The one snag was telling his mother that he was all the way in Japan and attending school. She was… less than pleased to hear he was on the other side of the world and without a passport or permission from her. Still, he was finally getting help with his Zarathos issues and he was getting a high school education in a foreign country which was always a plus on college and university applications. She was still angry at him, but it helped that he was getting so much good out of his latest excursion. She swore she'd let him have it once he got home though.

As if he wasn't afraid to go home before now…

Settled in, the first days of school soon came around for Barton. The other students began to arrive and began to get assigned their rooms. Barton stood out like a sore thumb thanks to his looks standing out from the norm, which got him stares from his fellow floor mates who were all guys. Still, he wasn't completely ostracized since they discovered that the chopper motorcycle parked outside the dorms belonged to him. The natural gearheads among them were always in the mood to admire a fine piece of machinery.

The first day of school finally rolled around and Barton was ready for it. He walked out of his dorm room with a backpack and the majority of his uniform on save for the green jacket and trousers. Instead, he was wearing his jeans and leather jacket which were a safer set of clothes to wear when riding on a motorcycle. Heading to the ground floor, he stepped out of the door and spied his motorcycle at the bike rack. He didn't bother chaining it or any other means of security. Anyone who tried tended to suffer some pretty severe consequences. The Hellcycle did not appreciate when someone tried to touch it without permission…and that particular piece of machinery only ever allowed one person to touch it.

Slinging his pack over his shoulder, Barton mounted his motorcycle and hit the ignition to make a loud roar from the engines. Soon enough he was racing down the dirt paths towards Youkai Academy. He reached the canopy of trees and felt a measure of peace overtake him. Driving on his bike was always something of a soothing experience for him. It was like he could leave his troubles behind at least for a little while and enjoy the open road and the scenery. The trees, the shade, the sun, the road, the purple-haired girls…

Wait, what?-!

"Dammit!" Barton bellowed, gripping the brakes of his bike. The machine let out a loud screech as Barton tried to avoid striking a female student who was standing in the middle of the road. He swerved to try and bring about a stop sooner, but the balance on his machine was quickly thrown off and her was thrown onto the dirt ground. His vision went screwy with a blur of depressing ground and overcast sky. He finally came to a halt as he stared up into the sky…

…and a pale face with purple hair.

She was definitely a Japanese girl with pale unblemished skin, pale eyes, and long purple hair which ran past her shoulders. Instead of the uniform jacket and shirt, she was wearing a black and white sweater which went over her hands with a halter top underneath. It was an easy thing to guess since the collar of the sweater was quite wide and revealed one of her shoulders. She wore the normal school skirt, but her legs were nicely accented with long socks which were striped with two different shades of purple. In her mouth was a lollipop which she rolled across her tongue as she looked down at Barton's prone form.

"Are you okay?" she asked in a soft and rather emotionless voice.

"Peachy," Barton grunted, pulling himself up into a sitting position. "Why were you standing in the middle of the road like that? I could have run you over or something."

"I was…looking for someone," the girl replied as she watched Barton get to his feet.

Shaking his head, Barton looked to see where his bike had ended up. Unsurprisingly, it was up straight looking like it had parked instead of coming to a screeching halt and throwing its rider to the dirt in an accident which may have given a normal person a concussion or worse if they had landed wrong. Fortunately Barton was not like most people. It still hurt like a bitch though and didn't make dealing with it any easier.

"Looking for someone," he muttered, shaking the dirt from his hair. There was really no point in getting mad at her since he hadn't been paying the most attention to the road, thinking that there would be no one else on it. "Well, don't just stand out in the middle of the road where someone on a bike or something could crash into you."

"LOOK OUT!"

"WAGH!"

The female cry and male scream of pain accompanied by metallic sounds not unlike a bicycle sounded off a bit of a distance away from the pair. Barton blinked at the somewhat convenient timing for his explanation but then shrugged it off, "Like them back there."

"Sorry," the pale girl bowed slightly.

"Don't worry about it," Barton shrugged, rubbing the bump on his head. "My name's Barton Blaze. Who are you?"

"Mizore Shirayuki," the girl replied, bowing a second time. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Barton nodded. "You heading to Youkai Academy too?" seeing the girl nod, he decided to make his offer. Barton was a Texan through and through and his mother taught him to always be courteous to a lady. "Need a ride? We might pass whoever it is you're looking for."

Mizore blinked at the offer before she glanced at the purring motorcycle. After a moment, she shrugged her own shoulders, "Okay."

Approaching the bike, Barton mounted on first before Mizore slung a leg over and made herself comfortable. Once both of them were on, Barton hit the ignition and made the machine roar once again. Mizore clutched the American boy tighter, but he noted that she felt rather cold instead of warm but shrugged it off. Barton had been told more than enough about the unique nature of the school and had seen it more than enough times in his floormates. Besides, he didn't really count as human himself so he had just as much right to be at the school as the other students did.

Mizore and Barton came to the front of the school and the American boy found a parking spot among the other bicycles. Mizore hopped off, looking a little wobbly for such a short ride but it was likely her first time on a motorcycle anyway so that much was understandable. Barton turned his machine and hopped off before heading towards the school.

"Aren't you going to secure your bike?" asked Mizore.

"If there's someone who can steal my bike, much less touch it without my permission then I wouldn't want to mess with them anyway," Barton shrugged. "Which class are you in? Maybe we'll see each other around?"

"Class 1-3," Mizore answered.

"With Nekonome-sensei, right?" Barton asked. Seeing Mizore nod, he grinned. "Cool. Me too."

"We can walk together then," the violet-haired girl nodded. The two new friends headed towards the school together, but they didn't say much of anything. First day of high school jitters aside, they just weren't sure what to say. Barton wasn't sure if he could ask any kind of question without offending Mizore, fearing that the Japanese had different views on what was considered an acceptable personal question. Mizore had wanted to know where Barton was from, but she was too shy to ask. She didn't want to offend a possible new friend when she had just met him.

* * *

After the welcoming ceremony for the first years in which the Headmaster made a big speech, the two made their way to the classroom in question which wasn't hard since it was on the first floor. They entered and found their homeroom teacher to be a bright and pleasant woman in a short skirt and a tank top under a white jacket. She had short tawny blonde hair which looked like she had cat ears poking out of the top of her head and there was even a cat's tail coming out from under her skirt. Normally that might be considered pretty odd, but as previously mentioned Barton knew about the nature of the school and as such his thoughts were, '_Wow. Another hot teacher. Will the wonders never cease?_'

After a few words with the woman, revealing that she was indeed as bright and cheery as her looks suggested, Barton and Mizore took their assigned seating. Barton was near the right side of the room while Mizore was next to the window. One by one the other first years for the class arrived. Some of them looked ordinary while others looked like punks through and through. All in all, it was what one would expect to see in a high school to be honest. When the bell rang, the cat-like teacher moved into action.

"Welcome to Youkai Academy everyone!" Ms. Nekonome cheered. "I'll be your homeroom teacher Ms. Nekonome!" It was a sort of invitation to begin cheering, but mostly a lot of the boys drooled over their teacher. Barton wasn't too ashamed to admire the woman since she wasn't in the middle of a lesson. "Now I'm sure you all know, this is a school for monsters!"

Barton sighed, resting his head in the palm of his hand. He had been told this entire deal by the Headmaster. It was an effort to allow humans and monsters, or Youkai, to blend in better with human society. They learned everything that a human needed to know both in education and in terms of normal society. Apparently a lot of youkai lived isolated from humans and if they wanted to get anywhere in life they needed to know this sort of thing. Of course, this led to the first rule of the school. All of the students had to remain in their human forms at all times. It was forbidden to reveal ones true form to anyone.

As Ms. Nekonome explained the rules, Barton noted that one student in particular seemed ready to freak out. He looked like the definition of average, but it was leaning more towards pathetic with how freaked out he was over the announcements. Maybe he was a weak monster who was afraid of being eaten or something?

'_Hell, maybe he's a human who enrolled here by accident,_' Barton chuckled to himself. As if that could happen…

His chuckles were interrupted when he heard one of the students ask a question, "But sensei, couldn't we just eat the humans? I could start with the cute girls."

Barton's mood did a 180 as her glanced to see who had spoken and spotted one of the thug-like students. He had brown hair which was slicked back and piercings on his face. He was even licking his lips in anticipation of the human flesh he could eat. Barton could easily peg him as a punk and likely one of the predatory monsters that people have been telling horror stories about for centuries.

'**Ahhhh, I can just smell the evil on him,**' Zarathos chuckled. '**So much greed, gluttony, and lust he holds.**'

'_He tries anything and you'll get your chance._' Barton replied, keeping a dark stare on the punk. There was a rare few times that Barton and Zarathos agreed on anything, but when they did someone usually got an express trip to hell.

Thankfully, the dark thoughts were interrupted by the door to the classroom opening. Inside came a girl in the school uniform with long pink hair and green eyes. She was admittedly very hot and the cross around her neck was a nice touch. All in all, she was likely one of the hottest girls he'd seen since the cheerleaders from his old school when they began going through their routines during the games. Hell, this girl didn't even have to try and she was matching them.

"Sorry I'm late!" the girl fretted. "I got lost after welcoming ceremony!"

"That's alright," Ms. Nekonome smiled. "Just take your seat and we can continue."

The pinkette nodded with a relieved smile as she entered the room and headed for the only open desk. In doing so though, nearly all of the boys in the room began to gape with wide eyes and drooling mouths.

"Wow!"

"So…hot!"

"It can't be a disguise…she's too…"

"BEAUTIFUL!"

The sudden cheer from the male classmates save for a few startled the pinkette. It was soon forgotten though when she noticed the average guy who was looking like he was ready to wet himself just a few moments ago. They both looked at each other with the boy murmuring out 'Moka' which was likely the girl's name which made the pinkette beam before glomping onto him with the best hug she could manage, "It's Tsukuneeeee!"

"What?-!"

"That jerk!"

"How does he rate a hug?-!"

And just like that, the mood went from adoring to bloodthirsty when the hot girl began to lavish attention on the boy. Barton was sure that someone was going to get punched in the next few moments, the teacher's view be damned. It seemed that teenage monsters and humans weren't so different after all. As soon as a hot babe came into the room, they all started thinking with the brain down inside their pants, right between their legs. Barton noticed on student in particular, the one who screamed 'punk', was staring hungrily at the new arrival.

He was going to need to keep his eyes on him.

* * *

Barton took the opportunity to explore the school a little during the lunch hour. The gothic mansion theme seemed to apply to the entire building as everything had a creepy undertone to it. Several of the students were just as creepy, making Barton believe that they had some difficulty in getting their human forms. Some of them were giving him odd looks, but if it was out of curiosity since he was the foreign kid or if it was because they wanted to single him out for the same reason he couldn't tell yet. Still, he ignored it as he wanted to see what the school had to offe in terms of amusement.

'**Oh man, this place is going to be fun! I can smell the barely restrained bloodlust, envy, anger, lust, and pride! Ha ha ha!**' Zarathos chuckled from the depths of Barton's soul.

'_So aside from the bloodlust, it's just like back home then,_' Barton thought back mirthlessly.

Wandering around didn't reveal anything to get terribly excited about. The novelty of going to a Japanese high school kind of wore off during the first few hours and now he was just trying to find something to keep his interest. If all else failed, he could just go check on his bike and see if there was any maintenance that needed to be done. It was likely nothing was needed but it would give Barton something to do while he waited for the lunch period to end.

"Barton." That was what he heard and he looked towards a nearby pillar. Turning to see who was talking to him, he saw Mizore poking her head out from behind a pillar. She was sucking on a lollipop.

"Mizore, what are you doing hiding back there?" he asked as she walked towards him.

"You exited in a hurry so I followed you," she said as if it explained everything about her hiding.

"So, why the pillar?" Barton questioned.

"It's how I follow people without being noticed," she explained. "How do you like this school?"

"It's interesting, I can tell you that much," he said honestly. "What about you?"

"I was afraid I was going to be alone," she said honestly. "But then I met you."

"Well, we're friends, aren't we?" Barton smiled. "So, where is the cafeteria."

Then he heard a loud slam and turned to see the kid called Tsukune being harassed by the thug from homeroom who Barton had heard was called Saizou. He was holding him up and pinning him against the vending machine while Moka tried to persuade the thug to stop hurting Tsukune.

"Looks like trouble," said Barton. He may have to intervene if it kept going.

'**Kill the lights and I'll step in,**' Zarathos laughed darkly.

Any action was cut off when Moka managed to pry Tsukune from Saizou's grip and ran off with him, yelling about hanging out. Saizou just snickered and clenched his fis before walking away. The group of students who were watching the confrontation shuffled away, making sure to stay out of the punks' way. People whispered to one another about him and lamented Tsukune's bad luck in catching his attention. Others were hoping to be able to witness the beatdown which would no doubt come.

"Saizou Komiya," Mizore spoke as they watched the crowd disperse. "People talk about him. They say he caused so much trouble in the human world he had to be sent here as a sort of reform school. They also say he messed up a lot of human girls."

"You don't say," Barton frowned, hearing Zarathos' chuckles grow louder. "How'd you find this out? We haven't been here for even a full day."

"I hear things when I hide," the pale girl replied. "I'm very good at listening in."

"I'll bet," Barton chuckled. "Oh well, let's find a spot to hang out, or did you have lunch yet?"

A soft growl from the girl's stomach gave him all the reply he needed, "I guess we're going to the cafeteria then."

The pair entered Youkai Academy's cafeteria and got themselves something to eat. Barton took some average meal of rice and meat while Mizore took a cold meal for herself. The pair quickly found some places so they could sit down and keep talking to one another.

"So…where do you come from?" asked Mizore. "You don't look or sound like you're from Japan."

"I'm not," Barton replied, stirring his rice and meat together to make something like a stew. "I'm from Texas, the United States."

"Wow," Mizore gasped softly, her eyes widening. "How'd you get here? It's really hard for monsters to get a passport."

"The Headmaster sprung for me since he wanted me to come to school here," Barton shrugged. "Apparently I'm something of a special case."

"Amazing," the pale girl gasped. "So what is it like in the United States? I've lived in Japan my whole life."

"Texas has a lot of deserts and it's hot," Barton explained. "But it has a lot to offer. The wide open roads and sunny weather make for great driving and wonderful road trips when wanderlust gets to me. I lived in one of the big cities too so I wasn't lacking in entertainment when things got dull."

"I don't do well in heat," Mizore shivered, trembling at the thought of such a hot and dry place. "But don't you need a licence to drive a motorcycle?"

"Shh," Barton held a finger to his lips. "I won't tell if you won't."

Mizore smiled and nodded. After all, Youkai didn't have much of a need for licences and such since they didn't exist in the legal system for humans. Yes, they'd take lessons and such when it came to cars and such but they couldn't quite get certification for driving when they required proof of identity. So if one proved they could drive, they drove a car. Her mother did it with a snowmobile all the time after all. She could see Barton doing the same with his motorcycle.

Barton himself was a natural on a motorcycle and if he propped himself correctly and didn't get carded no one would have guessed that he was too young for such a machine. Still, it was nice for Mizore to be willing to keep his secrete…for what it was worth considering how youkai lived.

Things were looking up. Maybe there was hope for being normal.

* * *

The day wore on and Barton finished his classes for the time being. Saying some goodbyes to Mizore, he retuned to his room so he could change into his riding clothes. Jeans, t-shirt, jacket, gloves, the entire ensemble. Coming out of his dorms, he found his bike and quickly hopped on, gunning the engine which purred like a kitten. He then lay on the accelerator and began roaring through the grounds to explore what the desolate place could offer.

It wasn't much, but dead trees, creepy animals, and lots of tombstones to make for scenery. All in all, it was as depressing as ever but maybe youkai felt comfortable in that sort of setting. Barton considered what that might mean while he drove down to the bus stop to make his trek complete. He wanted to get a good understanding of the area so he would know all of the best driving spots for when he got some wanderlust in him. He sincerely doubted that he'd be able to go thought the tunnel whenever he was bored.

Emerging from the canopy of trees, he noticed a student waiting at the bust stop with a suitcase filled with belongings. It looked like he had rushed with it too. Just standing there he looked like a trembling mess with a cloud of depression over his head.

"Wait a sec…" Barton wondered as he drove closer. "Is that…Aono?"

Driving up to the scared student, Barton saw that it was indeed Tsukune Aono who looked like he was trying to cut ties and leave the academy. That in itself maybe wasn't strictly wrong since not everyone could tough it out at a live-in school. Make it a live-in which catered to youkai of all sizes and if you were on the lower end of the food chain and it became a lot less of a sissy action to leave such a place. Still, Tsukune was a member of Barton's class so he felt like he at least could ask for his reasons.

"Hey Aono!" Barton shouted, getting the boy's attention as he drove his bike up next to the average-looking boy.

"Uh…Bureizu-san?" the nervous boy gulped.

"Hey, you remembered my name," Barton chuckled, shutting his machine off. "So what's with the bags? You decided to quit?"

"Well…yes," Tsukune sighed, slumping. "I just don't fit in here. I mean, I don't have what it takes. More than that, Moka-san hates me."

"Moka? Hate you?" Barton blinked. "Are we talking about the same girl? The pinkette who likes to hug you a lot?"

"Yeah…" Tsukune moaned.

"Man, you must be blind. Why would she hate you?" Barton asked. He really doubted from what he had seen of the girl so far that she had in her to even dislike somebody.

Tsukune couldn't say why he believed Moka hated him, but he couldn't. It would mean his death if he ended up telling anybody about his true identity among the other students in the school. "It's because of...well...it's complicated."

'**I know what the boy is talking about,**' Zarathos chuckled darkly.

'_And what would that be Zarathos. He a sinner like the kinds you go after?_' Barton frowned mentally as he watched Tsukune stutter, trying to make an excuse as to his current situation with the pinkette who was so enchanted with him before. He highly doubted that Tsukune was secretly evil. The kid looked like a good breeze could knock him over.

'**I wish,**' Zarathos snorted. '**No, the boy isn't a youkai. He's a human.**'

Barton blinked in shock at what he had just been told and couldn't help but blurt out, "You're human?-!"

"WAUGH!" Tsukune screamed, stumbling backwards. "How did you know?-!"

Shaking his head, Barton brought his head back into the conversation with the newly revealed human, "It's just a trick I know. Seriously though, you're actually a human?"

"Y-yes," Tsukune nodded weakly. "You're not going to tell anyone, are you?"

"Well, I don't see why I should," Barton sighed, scratching the back of his neck. "I guess that rule was made so to make sure the wrong sorts of humans who are a threat to youkai wouldn't find out but…don't this the wrong way, but you're about as threatening as a housefly."

Tsukune slumped, "…I know…" he looked up miserably. "But Moka-san says she hates humans and she was my only friend here. If she's the nicest girl around and still hates me because I'm human then what chance do I have of making any other friends here?"

"That's a tough one," Barton admitted with a nod. "Did she say why she hated humans?"

"Um…" Tsukune began. "She…she went to the human world for middle school. She said they made fun of her all the time. I think she said she was a vampire and no one left her alone afterwards."

"Ouch. Okay, that makes sense," Barton grimaced. "Still, did she actual **say** that she hated you?"

"Well…no…"

"Then go and clear things up," Barton pointed at Tsukune. "If you ditch her because of this, you'll leave her alone like those kids in her middle school did. You don't care about what she is do you? Maybe she won't care about what you are."

"You think so?" asked the boy with hope.

"Moka's a really sweet girl, right?" asked Barton. "I don't see why not. Just go up to her and say you're sorry and then she'll…"

"AAAHHHHHHH!"

"…scream?" Barton blinked, turning in the direction

"That was Moka!" Tsukuna gasped.

'**And it seems a source of evil is making a play on her!**' Zarathos whispered, anticipation rich in his voice.

"Get on!" Barton barked, his eyes narrowed in anticipation for a fight. Tsukune didn't argue as he dropped his bags and jumped onto the back of the motorcycle. It was a slightly awkward fit, but he made it work. Barton turned his machine on with a demonic roar and twisted it around before gunning for the direction the scream had comee from. Fire blasted from the exhaust pipes, almost making the bike seem to go even faster than before.

"Bureizu-san, should we be going this fast?-!" cried Tsukune over the roar of the engine.

"If anything, we should be going faster when someone's in trouble!" Barton replied, hitting the accelerator.

The machine roared even louder that before as its speed picked up. Driving down the road towards the school, Barton made a sharp turn into the underbrush that made Tsukune yelp in fright. He feared they would get stuck in the dead underbrush or the gnarled roots but that sudden stop he was waiting for didn't happen. Turning, he saw that all of the plants that they had hit with the machine so far had been rendered into ash with a smoking trail behind them. Glancing over to Barton's face, he saw that the boy was flushed as if he had a temperature spike in his body.

"Bureizu-san?" Tsukune blinked.

'**Let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out, let me out!**' Zarathos demanded hotly as they drew closer to the source of evil that was threatening Moka.

'_If we need to, I'll find some shade to pull the guy into! Just stay calm!_' Barton retorted hotly.

Breaking through the foliage the pair on the bike came into a clearing where two figures were. The first was Moka, who was backed up against a tombstone with a look of terror on her face. Opposite of her was a hulking figure who was pale and covered with a bony carapace. His muscles rippled in every move, showing off a sheer amount of strength. His face was narrow with rows of razor sharp teeth and what looked like a prehensile tongue. His hair looked wild, but slicked back at the same time. It was a little difficult to tell, but Barton immediately recognized him as Saizou Komiya.

'_That __**bastard!**_' Barton snarled in his thoughts, letting his bike skid to a halt. As he stopped, he let out a breath…and cinders came out. '_**What?**_'

"Moka-san!" Tsukune cried, dashing off of the bike and running towards his friend. In running towards her though, he didn't quite take notice of Saizou's altered form until the monster had turned around to face him "EEEEEYAAAAAHHHH!"

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Saizou snickered, drool coming from his lips.

Meanwhile, Barton was choking on his breath. Every time he coughed, more cinders would be expelled as if there was a bonfire inside of his chest. His face was an unhealthy shade of red while the tires of his bike were smoking as if affected by something. As he gasped for air, his voice came out warped, "_**Zarathos…what's going on? What are you doing?**_"

'**Haven't you figured it out yet? You're in the presence of evil after all. You can't deny me at this point!**'

"_**But…**_" Barton choked, expelling even more cinders. "_**I'm in the sun! There's not enough shadow!**_"

'**You can't feel it can you? The barrier which creates the place where this school exists does something to the sun! It protects the students who are sensitive to it, but it also makes it as if the entire space is filled in shadow! I HAVE FREE REIGN!**"

Barton's eyes widened in horror as they were overtaken by an unearthly flame, "_**NOOOOOOOOOO!**_

Saizou stopped his approach on Tsukune to see where the screaming had come from. He at first thought it was lovely Moka-chan screaming for her little pet, but the voice had come from a man even if it sounded a little strange. Looking to the motorcycle, he saw Barton dismounting it like he was struggling with something. Standing up, he panted for breath before he began to laugh. His face looked like it could break out into flames with fire in his eyes and yet he still laughed.

Then his face began to fall off.

Piece by piece, like masonry falling apart his face began to fall off to reveal bleached bone underneath. The studs on his shoulders flashed orange with heat before rising to turn into spikes. The same process happened to the studs on his gloves, turning them from decoration into lethal weapons. Inhaling deeply, Barton unleashed a bellow which shattered the remains of his head in a blast of flame that bared his skull to the outside world, engulfed in hot fire.

Moka promptly paled and began to tremble fiercely at the sight. Tsukune, managing to use the distraction, ran to the girl's side to retrieve her. "Moka-san!"

"G-G-G-G-G-!" Moka trembled, her eyes riveted on Barton's new form.

"What the hell are you?" Saizou growled, unsure of what he was looking at. Was he about to fight a wraith? A fire spirit? What?

"_**Me?**_" the new Barton snickered. Reaching to his bike, he unwrapped the chain from the seat before wrapping it around his torso in a single flick of thee wrist. "_**I am the Spirit if Vengeance! I am Revenge given form!**_" he walked towards Saizou before the orc lashed out with him with a muscled pucnh. Barton raised his left arm and let the enlarged fist collide with his spiked glove. The American didn't move an inch, but Saizou's pupils dilated as the spikes on the gloves pierced his hide like hot knives through butter. "NCK!"

"_**I am He Who Walks in Both Worlds! I! AM! THE GHOST RIDER!**_" the blazing monster finished before he reared back and punched Saizou brutally across the face, cutting through his skin with the spikes of his glove before the force of that blow sent him sailing across the clearing and crashing into a group of tombstones.

"That's…Bureizu-san?" Tsukune gasped as he watched the skull-headed monster walk towards the downed orc. "Amaz-HMPH!" His admiration was cut off when Moka clutched his head and pulled it down to her chest, making sure he couldn't see the fight while Moka kept her own eyes sealed shut.

"Don't look into his eyes Tsukune-kun!" the vampire begged her friend.

"Mrf?" Tsukune blinked, his face a cherry red for being engulfed in Moka's chest.

The Ghost Rider growled as he approached the downed orc. He could smell the evil coming from the teenage youkai. Lust, greed, gluttony, all of it was wafting off of him in waves. Whatever the rumours about the punk were, they were likely true if not underestimated. Either way, it didn't matter since the Spirit of Vengeance was going to ensure that the innocent blood that was spilled would be given justice today.

Saizou groaned and shook his head. Looking up, he saw Ghost Rider approaching him. Growling, Saizou grabbed one of the nearby tombstones before he hurled it through the air to smash the freak's skull in. The Ghost Rider ducked under the attack easily, but Saizou quickly approached and planted an uppercut into the bony chin, sending the Rider backwards before crashing into the dirt next to his motorcycle.

"How do you like that bonehead?" Saizou grinned, ignoring the painful burning sensation in his hand from the punch. "Nothing's going to stop me from making Moka my woman!"

"_**You need to stop thinking with the little head between your legs,**_"

The Ghost Rider got up, brushing dirt from his shoulder. Glaring at Saizou with the fire burning in his sockets even brighter than before, he grabbed the chains across his chest and unwound them. Bringing his arm back, one end of the chain wrapped around his wrist before he lashed with it. It cut through the air and wapped around Saizou's shoulders with ease. The orc grinned and began flexing his muscles in order to break out, but quickly found that the metal wouldn't break. "What the-?"

"_**Let's go for a spin!**_" Ghost Rider roared before he yanked on the chain, pulling Saizou off of his feet. He then spun on the spot, spinning the orc through the air before smashing him through the trees and tombstones. Another yank pulled the chain over his shoulder, bringing the orc through the air before he crashed into the dirt on the ground, sending dust in all directions while making a crater from the impact.

The Ghost Rider yanked the chain again, this time bringing the length back to himself where it wrapped around his torso to be at rest once again. A warped snicker came through his lips as he strode towards the downed youkai. Reaching the edge of the crater, he saw Saizou standing up in the middle of the dust, battered, bruised, and in his human form once again. With a growl, the Ghost Rider walked through the dust before grabbing the thug by the neck before slamming him into a nearby tree, making the disguised orc choke from the impact.

"_**Saizou Komiya. Look into my eyes,**_" The Ghost Rider growled. Choking on his saliva, Saizou stared into the burning coals which was the Rider's eye sockets. "_**Your soul is stained by the blood of the innocent. Now, feel their pain!**_"

The Rider's eyes flashed with their hellish fire and suddenly Saizou's world was filled pain. One by one, all of his previous victims who he had fun with came back, only this time he was on the receiving end of the pain he inflicted. The girl in the back alley…the cheerleader from middle school…that yankee girl who tried to pick a fight with him…the girl who turned him down saying she was a lesbian…another girl who turned him down because she was with a guy already…each and every one. The pain, physical, mental, emotional….all of it was rebounded on him like burning coals shoved through his chest like they were being pushed into it with the Rider's spiked fist.

"GYAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" the orc bellowed, the pain coming through him, burning his very soul with the weight of the unforgivable sin he had committed in the name of his own pride, lust, and greed. Saizou's scream died as his body went limp. He was still alive in a sense, but his soul was ash at that point. Was it possible to recover? Well, that wasn't likely but it was up for debate.

Satisfied that his attack was finished, the Ghost Rider threw Saizou's body aside where it landed heavily in the dirt. He didn't move, didn't speak, didn't make a sound beyond blinking his eyes which looked like they were replaced with coals. The trash dealt with, the Ghost Rider glanced over his shoulder to where Moka and Tsukune were huddled.

'_I…can't breathe!_' Tsukune gasped as Moka continued to crush his face into her chest. Beginning to flail, he tried to get her attention by tapping her shoulders or pulling on her clothes to try and make her let go. He immediately grabbed part of her outfit and yanked on it to try and get her to let him go before he blacked out.

KLANK!

Moka's eyes snapped open as she looked down, her shock rising when she saw the rosario which hung from her neck in Tsukune's hand and not on the chain where it was supposed to be. "It…came…off?"

WOOOSH!

The Ghost Rider turned his full attention on the pair as Moka became enveloped in a pillar of monstrous energy while Tsukune was pushed back by the sudden force. The Rider didn't worry about light blinding him and instead watched as Moka's body matured, her muscles become saturated with the youkai energy, her hair turn silver, her incisor teeth become more pronounced, and her eyes turn crimson red with a slit for a pupil. When the light died down with the power being absorbed into her body, Moka was revealed as the pink-haired sweet girl that the boys in her class adored, but a silver-haired sensual vampire.

Opening her eyes and focusing, Moka turned her gaze to the Ghost Rider, taking care not to look at his eyes, "Never in a hundred years would I have expected to meet a Ghost Rider anywhere, much less at a school."

"_**We have ways of popping up,**_" Ghost Rider replied. "_**You want to make something of it?**_"

Moka smirked and cracked her neck, "Well, I have been asleep for a while but I cannot simply let this opportunity pass me by. The chance to test myself against the Ghost Rider, the Spirit of Vengeance himself? I would be foolish to simply let it pass."

"M-Moka-san?" Tsukune trembled, staring at the vampiric woman in awe.

"You just stay there and keep an eye on my rosario," the silver-haired vampire spoke to Tsukune without looking at him. "And make sure not to look into the Ghost Rider's eyes. You risk your soul by doing so."

"_**My Penance Stare only works on the wicked. The boy has nothing to fear from me since he's about as innocent as a teenage boy can get,**_" the Ghost Rider chuckled, making Tsukune blush from the teasing. "_**You have me at a disadvantage though. You know what I am, what are you?**_"

"Is it not obvious?" asked Moka a grin of pride coming to her lips. "I am a vampire, one of the most feared and powerful of youkai."

"_**Are you now?**_" asked the Ghost Rider. _"__**Well then, since a lady asked me for it and apparently has the reputation to back it up, I cannot in good sense deny her.**_"

"A gentleman," Moka smirked. "How unexpected from the devil's bounty hunter."

"_**Oh, if that surprised you then you are going to be in for a hell of a lot more!**_"

Both Moka and the Ghost Rider smirked at one another for a moment, which seemed to make the nature around them. In the next moment, both monsters lunged at one another in blurs of black and silver. They met in the middle of the clearing with the Ghost Rider attempting to punch Moka while the vampire swung at him with a powerful kick. The kick met the punch and sent cinders flying in all directions while the ground cracked. Tsukune gaped openly at the sight not in awe, but because he could see Moka's panties. Neither the Ghost Rider nor Moka cared about the flashing as they pulled back before lashing out at one another with savage blows.

Moka's leg crashed against the Ghost Rider's side. Rather than be sent flying by the blow, the Ghost Rider wrapped his arm around her leg, forcing her to stand on one leg and compromise her balance. He brought back his fist and slugged her in the face, sending her back several feet. Rather than stumble like Saizou did after such a blow, she landed on her feet before skidding back. She growled and spat out a glob of blood, showing nothing more from the strike than a swelling cheek. Frowning, she gave off a glow of monstrous aura before dashing at the Ghost Rider at a near-blinding speed. The Ghost Rider was caught off guard by the sudden burst of speed and was met with a sudden fist to his face that launched him clean off of his feet and through several tombstones which kicked up a cloud of dust.

"Wa…wa…wa…wa…" Tsukune gaped. He trembled as he looked at the vampiric woman. "M-M-Moka-san?"

"Stay down," Moka ordered sharply. "He's not down yet."

"Huh?"

"_**YEEE-HAW!**_"

Out of the dust came a length of chain which danced around Moka and wrapped around her tightly. She growled and tried to break the length, but not even her vampiric strength managed to do that. One sharp pull yanked Moka straight into the dust cloud, making Tsukune whimper in fear. A sharp crack of fist against bone sounded off before Moka was launched out of the cloud still attached to the chain. Another yank pulled her back in before another crack followed and sent her clear across the area before she smashed through a tree, toppling it to the ground.

"Moka-san!" Tsukune cried out.

"_**Easy there gutless wonder,**_" Ghost Rider chuckled as he emerged from the dust cloud. "_**It'll take more than that to take her out.**_"

True to the demon's words, Moka emerged from the destroyed tree, a dark aura blazing over her body. Ghost Rider merely chuckled as he cracked his knuckles, the flames on his skull growing hotter and brighter in anticipation of battle. The two planted their feet into the dirt and prepared to jump for one another for a powerful strike which would no doubt cause even more damage to one another.

"HUOOOOOO!"

"_**RAAAAAAAAHH!**_"

The Ghost Rider and Moka charged for one another, ready for another devastating blow when…

"STOP IIIIIIIIIIT!"

Ghost Rider and Moka skidded to a halt as Tsukune planted himself between the two with his palsm facing them. He was trembling like a leaf and looked incredibly pale. He was sweating and looked the image of a weakling who was caught between two sharks. Still, his eyes were drastically different. He was determined to stop the violence and prevent his friend from being in pain. Moka as she was now likely wasn't going appreciate that, but it was admirable to see someone so weak doing something so brave.

"Just…stop it….please," he panted, terrified.

Ghost Rider and Moka relaxed their stances, feeling disappointment in their battle getting cut short. Frowning, Moka approached the boy and snagged her rosario back, "Tsk! And just when it was getting good." Bringing the holy relic near her choker, she looked to Tsukune, "Don't do something so stupid again boy. Your blood is simply too good to give up to idiocy." She attached the rosary to the chain, which made another flash of light that converted the silver-haired sensual woman into the pink-haired cute teenage girl she was before. Her green eyes then turned hazy as she collapsed, barely being caught in time by her friend.

"Moka-san!" Tsukune gasped. He would have tried to rouse her, but the Ghost Rider's sudden groans of pain turned his attention to the devilish bounty hunter.

The Ghost Rider dropped to his knees, clutching his face as if the flames were hurting him. At first nothing changed, but then Tsukune watched morbid fascination as the skin, muscle, and flesh began to grow back onto the teenage demon's skull, extinguishing the flames as it went. Soon, Barton Blaze was back to normal and panting on the ground with his face slowly changing from the unhealthy red back to its normal shade.

"Bureizu-san?" Tsukune asked, slightly fearful.

"This always happens when I don't change for a while," Barton cursed under his breath. Shaking his head, he looked to Moka and Tsukune. "You two okay?"

"Uh…y-yeah," Tsukune nodded timidly. "I think we are."

"Good," Barton grunted, forcing himself back onto his feet. His body ached and it felt like his head was still on fire, but other than that he seemed okay. "Sorry you had to see that. My dark side gets to be that way when he's alone with certifiable assholes."

Taking a moment to get his balance, Barton approached his fellow students, "Need some help getting her back to the dorms?"

"I…I guess," the boy nodded.

Hoisting an arm over his shoulder, both he and Tsukune began walking Moka into the paths towards Youkai Academy. As they went, they walked past Barton's motorcycle which Tsukune commented on only to get the answer, "It'll find its way back home."

The shuffled down the path with the surprisingly heavy Moka between them, silent for the time being save for the girl's soft murmurings. Eventually it became to much for Tsukune and he allowed his curiosity to get the better of him, "Um, Bureizu-san? If it's not rude to ask, just what are you?"

"Me?" asked Barton, hefting Moka's arm slightly. "I'm what you call the Ghost Rider. Ghost Riders are spirits of vengeance who attack the wicked and stalk the guilty. In the dark and the presence of evil, I can't help but transform and my…instincts take over and I attack whoever's the most evil." Barton glanced and saw that Tsukune gulped. "Relax kid. Unless you're secretly some kind of axe murderer by night, the Ghost Rider literally cannot hurt you. He's bound by the very strict laws of his creation. Just touching you while transformed would be pushing it."

Tsukune sighed in relief feeling much better at that confession, "So, what did you do to Saizou? And if you can only transform at night, how did you change now? Why did you want to fight Moka so badly?"

"One question at a time shorty," Barton snickered. "What happened to Saizou was what is called the Penance Stare. By looking into the Ghost Rider's eyes, the wicked have all of their sins revisited onto them. All of the pain which they caused mentally, physically, and emotionally is turned on them. The more wicked you are, the worse it gets. Since Saizou had such a reaction to it, I'd say he hurt a lot of people before his parents tossed him here."

Tsukune gulped. And he was going to square down with such a monster?

"Normally I can only transform at night or at least in shadow, but the barrier here is changing things," Barton frowned. "Apparently it keeps out the purifying aspects of the sun or something which keeps me from transforming. I guess it was made to protect the students who were sensitive to such things. Only now it lets me transform when I'm in the presence of evil sunlight be damned. That's going to make hiding it harder."

'**Oh I can be reasonable. I'll only take over when you're in a fight. It ruins the sweet anticipation otherwise,**' Zarathos laughed, but the satisfaction of a good soul burn was quite easy to see.

"As for why the Ghost Rider fought Moka, I couldn't tell you," Barton sighed. "It's sort of a split personality thing for me. When I transform, I'm a slave to my instincts but once that task is finished what happens next is up to the Ghost Rider. He's the one in control until there's no evil or battle to be dealt with."

"So, because Moka-san challenged him he decided to stay?" asked Tsukune.

'**Damn right I did,**' Zarathos laughed.

"Sounds about right," Barton nodded. "So, you going to drop out?"

"Well," Tsukune sighed. "I think…I'll talk to Moka-san first. If she wants to be friends with me still, I think I'll tough it out."

"Good to hear," Barton nodded. "'Cause after all of this, I feel like we could actually be friends."

Tsukune blinked, but then began to smile, "I'd like to be friends too."

Barton grinned.

* * *

A new day of school started and Barton was driving towards the school once again. As he predicted, the next morning when he came out to go to school his motorcycle was waiting for him. He had to apologize to it since it wouldn't start but it eventually forgave him. He drove up to the school like clockwork and parked his ride next to the other bicycles once again. Dismounting and hefting his book bag over his shoulder, Barton began walking towards the front doors. As he went though, he noticed several boys grumbling and groaning to themselves. The reason why they were grumbling was because coming through the gates were Tsukune and Moka, walking together like close friends. Of course the boys would grumble over that since it looked like Moka was all but taken.

"Seems like they patched things up," Barton grinned.

'**Yeah, yeah, yeah, the lovebirds are back together again. Get a move on, I want to see the cat chick again!**'

'_Pervert,_' Barton grumbled mentally.

* * *

To be Continued...?

A/N: Okay, how is it? This Ghost Rider universe is based off of the movie. If you like it, great. If you don't like it then you can simply ignore this or you can offer me advice or ideas on how to make it better. Flamers and people who offer no constructive criticism will be subjected to the Penance Stare! RAWR!

Oh, for those of you wondering why Ms. Ririko and Tsukune were saying Barton's name differently than I write it, it's how it's pronounced in Japanese. I checked it with an online translator. I must also restate that this Barton Blaze IS NOT Johnny Blaze's father, a reincarnation, or otherwise connected to the man aside from being the man's grandson and namesake. Of course, if you haven't realized this by this point then you haven't read the fic.


	17. Mahou Ridaa Negima

I do not own Negima or Kamen Rider Wizard. Those belong to their respective creators and not me. I am only writing this for fun and perhaps a bit of ego since I was challenged to make a Wizad fic. So, tell me what you think.

Mahou Ridaa Negima!

By Ten-Faced Paladin

Chapter 1: Teacher and Rider in One

**Wales, Britain**

The air was charged with excitement in the mountainside village. It wasn't a normal kind of energy that the magical area was known for, being the host of one of the premier magical schools in the country. Instead, the excitement was more anticipatory as people crowded around said school. Inside the majestic building, inside of a grand hall which looked more like an altar of a grand cathedral than anything to do with a school the walls were lined with spectators who were simply bursting with pride. At the altar position itself was an old man with a long white beard matched by his long white hair dressed in a white robe. In the middle of the room, by themselves were five teenagers in black robes with the stereotypical witch hats on their heads. The odd mundane could have easily mistaken this assembly as some kind of cultish ceremony. The truth was actually nowhere near as fantastic as that.

It was graduation.

"When I call your name, my graduates," the old man's voice echoed through the hall, sounding strong and vigorous despite his age. "Please come up and claim your mystic diplomas. They will dictate your future careers. When you leave these halls, always please remember: A charmed life is a happy life." Smiling, the man reached for a scroll handed to him by another person in a white robe with the hood pulled up. "Now, Negi Springfield!"

"Yes Sir!"

The middle of the five graduates stepped forward, removing his hat which symbolized his transference from a student to a graduate. He was a young man with red hair that faded into a dark brown the closer it got to his scalp and the back of his head. It was tied into a short ponytail at the back. He sported a small pair of spectacles, made more to help one see the finer details rather than needing help seeing in day to day activities. Underneath the cloak he wore a dark uniform, complete with a jacket and the red tie. Hanging from his pocket was what could almost be considered a chain, but instead of links there were jewel rings, some were solid jewels while others had designs across the surface. On his right hand was a ring which had a black stone shaped like a hand while his left hand was sporting a ring which had a large oval ruby on it. Peeking out from his coat was a belt which had a glossy stone buckle shaped like a hand with the fingers pointing to his left side.

Negi walked up to the old man with a smile. The pair exchanged nods of acknowledgement before the old man, assumedly the headmaster of the school, handed a rolled up scroll to the young man.

"Congratulations," The older man smiled, showing more pride than what was for a normal student but a blood relation.

"Thank-you sir," Negi smiled back.

* * *

The graduation ceremony continued onward, but it was short since there were only five graduates that year. Walking through the ornate halls was Negi, looking down at his diploma to see that indeed it was his certificate stating that he had graduated from his school, top of his class even!

"Negi!"

Negi looked up from his diploma to see two young women walking towards him. The first was a girl his age wearing a cloak like his over her own uniform, indicating that she was a graduate like him. She had long dark brown hair which was tied up in twin ponytails which trailed down almost to her waist. Her name was Anya Chocolova, Negi's childhood friend whom had graduated much like he did. Next to her was an older woman with long blonde hair which travelled down to her waist. She wore a one piece black dress with a white collar, which was either her own higher education uniform. She was Nekane Springfield, Negi's cousin although she was more of a big sister to him since she had raised him most of his life.

"Ah, Big Sister, Anya," Negi smiled.

"Did your diploma show you your assignment yet?" asked Anya as she and Nekane reached the young man. "I'm going to be a fortune-teller in London!" Her face was insufferably smug at her assignment, obviously pleased that she would be able to work in such a historic city which had more than a little magical knowledge that was ripe for the picking.

"Mine's just about to show up," Negi replied, ignoring the slight barb to Anya's bragging. As if on cue, the diploma began to glow. On it's surface, words began to appear as if written by an invisible pen. Anya and Nekane leaned over Negi's shoulder to try and see what the young man's assignment was going to be. Negi blinked as the full sentence was revealed. "A teacher…in Japan?"

The three were silent for a moment

"MAAAAGUUUUUS!" Nekane's scream echoed through the air.

Negi wasn't entirely sure what had happened next, but he felt like he was yanked by the arm before he was dragged through the school. The next thing he knew, he was in a completely different hallway where the magus was walking. What made the trip so confusing was that he was pretty sure that the hallway he had been was on the opposite side of the school. Then again, he knew that Nekane and Anya had a habit of doing strange things when they were upset.

"Magus! It's Negi's diploma!" Nekane cried, running up to the old man. "It says he's supposed to be-!"

"A teacher. I know," Magus nodded, completely calm with the hysteria that Nekane and Anya were peppering him with.

"B-But he's only fifteen!" Nekane tried to argue. "There's no way he can be a teacher! Especially not in such a faraway place!"

"Yeah!" Anya agreed. "Besides, he's a total nerd and a space case! They'll eat him alive!"

"Hey!" Negi grumbled.

"The diploma has spoken," Magus retorted calmly with a sense of finality. "Even I can't do anything about it," he looked to Negi, his eyes landing on the rings hanging from his waist for a moment before looking into the man's eyes. "Dedicate yourself Negi. Japan's youth are going to be counting on you."

Nekane looked like she was on the brink of hysteria, looking between Negi and the Magus, but seeing that her precious little brother was not even trying to fight the decision. Tears in her eyes at the thought of her charge being so far away from where she could help him she began to get rubber legs as she fell back in near-faint.

"Sister!" Negi cried, rushing to keep Nekane from hurting herself. Managing to catch her with Anya's help, the pair of them gently sat her down to be at least a bit more comfortable.

"Don't worry," Magus chuckled warmly. "An old friend of mine is the headmaster of the school. Both he and your heart will guide you. I have every confidence."

"Yes sir!" Negi nodded. "I will!

* * *

**The Power of Magic Unknown**

**A Young Man Chosen to Face those who Thrive in Despair**

**Educator of the Future Minds.**

**He is Called...Wizard**

* * *

**Tokyo Bullet Train enroute to Mahora Academy**

Onboard the bullet train car were female students of the illustrious Mahora Academy. It was an elevator school, providing the educational needs for its enrolled students, starting from pre-school all the way to University. It also had its own community within its walls, providing students with the essentials. In fact, Mahora Academy's size could label it as a small city. Unbeknownst to most people though, Mahora also had a healthy population of mages, considering the school was also the headquarters for the Kanto Magic Association of Japan. It was likely why Negi was being assigned there of all places.

Speaking of Negi, he was feeling distinctly uncomfortable as he was pressed against so many female bodies. It wasn't his fault though. The train car he was in was crowded because of the morning rush. What was more, he discovered just recently that Mahora Academy, or rather the part of it he was being assigned to turned out to be an all-girl school. It came as a surprise, but like an adult he decided to tough it out and hope for the best.

Negi was dressed in three piece suit which consisted of a green blazer and matching slacks. Under the blazer he wore a white shirt with a red necktie. Thrown over his ensemble was a black coat that reached down to his knees. He adjusted his rings, just out of habit. Standing inside a train for long tended to make him bored. He also had on a backpack, filled with most of his essential belongings. He normally would have let his eyes wander after being on the train for so long, but with so many girls around, he didn't want to look like some kind of pervert.

"Excuse me?" a female voice spoke.

"Yes?" Negi asked, replying in perfect Japanese which seemed to surprise the girl and her friends who were talking to him. They looked like students of Mahora, possibly his future students.

"Um...have you gotten onto the wrong train?" she asked. "We just passed the stop for the boys school a few minutes ago."

"Well, actually it's the girls section that I'm supposed to be going to," Negi explained awkwardly. "The headmaster wishes to meet me there."

"Really?" the girl blinked. "Why would-?"

Her question was cut off when the train hit a bumpy section of track and one of the girls tumbled into him. He tried to keep himself steady as well as prevent the girl from falling, but as she fell her hair brushed against his nose in the chaos. Negi's nose twitched before he felt the oncoming sneeze.

"AH-CHOO!"

At the sneeze, there was a blast of wind which went through the entire car, flipping up all of the girls' skirts to reveal a multi colour rainbow of fabric and lace that would have been a pervert's dream. Negi, his head angled down from the sneeze allowed him to see the display. Blushing furiously, he snapped his gaze back up so he could deny having been staring. '_Why does this always happen?_'

"Where did that wind come from?" asked one of the girls.

"A dirty mind I'm thinking," another replied, her face a portrait of embarrassment.

The girl Negi caught flushed bright red and stepped back, apologizing for being so clumsy on the train, but otherwise kept quiet and her voice averted. Thankfully, the awkward moment ended when the train rattled to a stop, announcing their arrival at Mahora Academy. The doors opened, but the students made a mad dash out of the train car, leaving the young man to struggle to keep up.

"**Welcome back students! The student counselling committee has declared this punctuality week! Ten minutes until the first bell! Lateness will not be tolerated! Anyone that is late will receive a yellow card, so we urge you to be at school as early as possible!**"

The voice came over an intercom system, explaining why everyone around was running like hooligans. There were people on skateboards, scooters, even a motorcycle or two. Negi was tempted to bring out his own bike, but that would have been too much of a magical spectacle which mages tried to hide from the mundane people.

Still, old habits died hard especially ones that proved to help keep you alive.

Negi reached to the chain of rings attached to his bet, plucking one that was silver with a red bird marking on it from the chain. Slipping off his black hand ring, he slipped the red bird ring overtop of it. Looking around to see that everyone was too busy running past him and no one looked back, Negi brought his right hand to his belt buckle, holding his hand over it. The ring and buckle then flashed as words spoke from nowhere.

"_**GARUDA, PLEASE!**_"

materializing in front of Negi was what looked like a plastic model which was ready to be put together, all held in a plastic frame like car models would be held in. The pieces hovered there for a moment before disassembling from their frame, letting it dissolve. The pieces then came together, forming a red and silver bird-like creature with a slot on its chest. Negi removed his bird ring before inserting it into the slot. The bird seemed to come alive with a cute tough-sounding cry.

"Explore the campus and report back to me if you see anything too odd," Negi spoke to his Garuda Plamonster, a magical construct. The bird tweeted before taking off into the sky, no one the wiser as to what had just occurred. Smiling, Negi watched it go before he realized that he was also on the clock. "On no! I forgot!"

Kicking off the ground, Negi charged off towards the school where his future boss was supposed to be found, "Please don't let me be late!"

* * *

"ARGH! We're going to be so late!"

The cry of outrage came from a girl with long orange hair tied into two ponytails with bell decorations grumbled as she and her companion, a long-haired brunette on rollerskates ran towards their school, hoping to beat the late bell. "We can't meet this new teacher and get to class on time!"

Their names were Konoka Konoe and Asuna Kagurazaki. Both were members of the famous/infamous Class 2A of Mahora Gakuen. They weren't bad girls and none of them were what one would call delinquents. Sure, some of the lowest scorers in their grade were in the class, Asuna being one of those low scorers. Konoka on the other hand was well-known since she was the dean's granddaughter, not that she was the type to take advantage of that, or anyone really.

"Why do we have to do this for the headmaster anyway?" asked Asuna grumpily.

"It's because I'm his granddaughter," Konoka smiled at her friend, completely at ease with the prospect of being late, but she likely knew being on a job from the headmaster would make for a great excuse.

"Why are you so excited about this anyway?" asked the orangette. "If this new teacher is supposed to be a friend of your grandpa's then he's probably going to be an old fart or something!"

"Don't be so sure Asuna," Konoka smiled knowingly, holding up an astrology book. "Your horoscope says that you'll be having a fateful encounter today!"

"Really?-!" Asuna gasped. '_Maybe some good luck is coming my way after all!_'

"Yup!" Konoka smiled. "It also says that if you say your love's name five times and bark then he's yours!"

"It also says that if you say the name of your love five times and bark, it'll come true!" Konoka continued.

Asuna's face immediately brightened as a grin threatened to split her face, "ALL RIGHT! TAKAHATA-SENSEI, TAKAHATA-SENSEI, TAKAHATA-SENSEI, TAKAHATA-SENSEI, TAKAHATA-SENSEI, ARF!" the last bark was loud enough to startle several people around them.

"Wow," Konoka blinked, a sweatdrop coming down the side of her face. "I…didn't expect you to really do it. I'm impressed."

"Because I'm so dedicated to Takahata-Sensei?" Asuna answered smugly.

"No because I made it up cheese-head," Konoka giggled.

"KONOKA!"

"Oh come on," the brunette smiled. "Can't you take a joke?"

Asuna scowled then huffed before running ahead of Konoha who continued to call out to her. As the pair continued to run, or in Konoka's case skated, they were almost passed by someone. Normally it wouldn't be that unusual beyond how Asuna was one of the faster students. What did catch their attention though was that the one who passed them was a young man. This in itself was rather odd since they were rather close to the girls school and boys were certainly not allowed.

"Huh?" Asuna blinked.

"Ah!" Konoka gasped in surprise.

They only saw the back of his head, which sported a short ponytail. "Hey!" Asuna shouted as she ran up to him and grabbed the back of his backpack.

"Woah!" he exclaimed as he was tugged backwards, landing on his rear painfully. "Ow..."

"Hey, are you lost, buddy? Or can't you read the signs?" she asked as she looked down at him. She had her hands to her hips in a self-righteous pose. "This is an all girls' school. So, NO BOYS ALLOWED!"

"The boys school is one stop before this one, but you can still get there if you take a left out of the train station and follow the main street," Konoka supplied helpfully, seemingly the complete opposite of Asuna's fiery fury.

"I know where I am," Negi muttered, rubbing his rear out of reflex before remembering himself and standing up. He had been expecting this to be honest, but it was still it came as a surprise that hit him out of nowhere...literally. "I'm supposed to be here. i was invited by-"

"Well, well! Is that you Asuna?"

Asuna froze at the voice before turning to the source which was in the building next to them. Looking up, they spotted a man in a teacher's suit with scruffy hair, some stubble, small frame glasses and a cigarette in his fingers. He was smiling down at the scene as if he had seen it dozens of times before.

"Making friends I s-" he cut himself off as he spied just who Asuna was fighting with. "Negi, is that you?-!"

Asuna instantly flinched and scrambled to apologize. "Ah! Takahata-sensei! He…ah…I…um!"

Negi had a different approach. He broke out in a wide grin before waving up to the man, "Takamichi! It's been ages! It's great to see you again!"

Asuna and Konoka blinked before looking to the boy who had referred to their teacher by his first name. One could almost see the question marks appearing above their heads. Up in the window he was sticking out of, Takahata smiled down at his teenage friend, "It's good to see that the welcoming committee found you. Glad to have you aboard." He shook his head, as if thinking about all of the years which had gone by. "'Negi-sensei' who would have thought?"

Konoka blinked at the title for the teenage boy which her teacher referred to him buy. It was enough to snap her out of her own daze brought on by Negi's handsome features. Turning to gaze to the boy, she couldn't help but ask, "Negi-sensei? Did he really just call you-?"

"He did," Negi nodded, confirming Konoka's question. Turning to the two girls, he bowed respectfully. "My name is Negi Springfield. Starting today I am your new English teacher."

"EEEEEHH?-!" Both girls cried out in sheer shock. Well, it was shock on Asuna's part while Konoka's leaned closer to excited surprise.

"That is total bull!" Asuna cried, glaring at the boy. It made Negi flinch slightly, not wanting to be on the wrong end of her savage grip of the girl. "You can't be any older than we are! There is absolutely no way that you are a teacher! Uh-uh! No way! This has to be some kind of joke!"

"It's no joke Asuna," Takahata spoke, coming out of the building. One may have questioned how he managed to come from his window perch to the doors so quickly but Asuna was too riled up to care, Konoka trying to calm down her friend and failing, and Negi knew the truth anyway. He walked to the trio, ready to intervene since he above all others knew just how bad Asuna's temper could be. "Despite his age, Negi is certainly more than qualified for the position he's expected to fill."

"I'd like to see that!" the orangette huffed, crossing her arms.

"Well, you will since from this day onward he's taking over my class," Takahata replied, sticking his cigarette into his mouth.

"WHAT?-!" Asuna shrieked, turning to gape at her beloved teacher in shock. She looked like she was about to break out in tears at the thought of such a switch happening. "If he was to replace you, it would...it would..."

"Break your heart?" Negi supplied out of sheer reflex, but he then clamped his mouth shut in his desire not to bring Asuna's angry attention back to him. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be true as Asuna turned her eyes back to him.

"Yes! Break my-!" the sputtering girl began, only to realize just who had offered the suggestion.

Rounding on the boy, she grabbed the lapels of his shirt and began shaking him back and forth. "Shut up! Who asked you?-!-? I don't care how hot you are, you are a nit! A nothing! A-!" Continuing to rant and shake Negi roughly, her hair swished madly as if flames in response to her anger. Several strands brushed past Negi's face, tickling his nose. The reaction was too quick for him to stop and Asuna was shaking him too much for him to try even if he could.

"Ah…AH…ACHOO!"

It had happened quite suddenly, so fast that nobody was able to react to it at first. Frankly, the sight of Asuna's clothes all but exploding off of her body and leaving her in nothing but her underwear with the cute bear prints on her panties revealed for everyone to see caught everyone off guard. Asuna's strangled screech echoed as she attempted to cover her body from sight. Takahata calmly averted his eyes, already guessing that Negi's wind magic managed to get the better of him in the sneeze. Negi himself felt mortified at what he had just done and his face turned bright red at what he was seeing.

"HAS THIS WHOLE SCHOOL GONE MENTAL?-!-?-!"

* * *

**Headmaster's Office - Mahora Academy**

The welcoming group and new teacher quickly relocated to the headmaster's office so Negi could meet his employer and formally begin his job. Asuna was forced to wear the gym jacket and sweat pants as she did not have time to run back to get a replacement uniform, nor did she want to go such lengths and give perverts a free show. She would have to buy a replacement later in order to have a proper uniform to wear.

The headmaster's office was quite large and looked expansive, perhaps par tof which was if a student had to see him they would be a little bit more humble if they felt like they had done something wrong. The man himself was a shorter old man with a long beard, extremely fuzzy eyebrows, and an oddly-shaped head. He wore traditional robes, meaning he must have come from a long-line of established family members. He was looking at the scene of his granddaughter, her best friend, and his new employee with no small amount of amusement.

"Headmaster, please tell me this is some kind of joke," Asuna sighed, still trying to get over her embarrassment from earlier.

"I could," the wizened old man chuckled. "But that would be lying." Ending his amusement, he turned to regard Negi. A fine young man in all aspects and it seemed his granddaughter may be interested in him. Well, there would be time enough for that. "So, this role should be quite the challenge for you."

"It will be sir," Negi nodded. "But you will receive nothing but my best!"

"I expect better," the old man corrected. Negi nodded rapidly.

"Good. You will teach until March then," Konoemon nodded. A mischievous sparkle entered his eyes and he broached the next subject. "Now, if you require a girlfriend while you're here my

granddaughter is currently single."

"Grandpa!" Konoka whined, somehow appearing next to her grandfather before bopping him over the head with a hammer. The old man just chuckled while ignoring the growing bump on his head as he

regarded his employee and student in front of him.

"Hello? I'm still not accepting this!" Asuna cried, approaching the desk. "I mean, how can a teenager become a teacher?-!"

"Through hard work and natural talent," the dean answered. "As for acceptance, that resides solely to me and I do," he then looked to Negi once again. "Now Negi-kun, if you fail here there is absolutely no second chances. Are we clear?"

"Crystal sir," Negi nodded. "Only I will not fail. I can promise you that."

The sheer conviction in his voice revealed how confidant the teen was in his role. He knew he could do his assigned task and do it well. Takahata smiled in some pride while Konoka and Asuna were a little stunned by his confidence in himself, but the orangette shook it off quicker. She was still upset over her crush being removed from his position for some teenage punk who she still refused to believe would be able to do the job an adult could, much less her beloved Takahata-sensei.

The confidence made the headmaster smile, "Ho ho ho! Just what I was expecting to hear. We'll start you off today then. Of course I won't let you start cold fish. You'll have an advisor to help you when you are unsure of something or need more information concerning certain aspects of the job. Her name is Shizuna-sensei and I'm sure the two of you will get along marvellously." He glanced past the teens and to the door. "Shizuna-kun, are you there?"

"Yes headmaster."

Negi heard the door open and someone beginning to approach. He turned to greet the person, but suddenly found himself pressed up against a warm and squishy surface which was marvellously soft. He blinked as he was presented face to face with an admittedly pretty woman who wore small oval frame glasses and had long blonde hair. She wore a simple sweater which strained against her obvious assets and a simple skirt. She obviously didn't need much to look beautiful since she was already that without any kind of makeup or elaborate clothing.

"Uh…excuse me," Negi stepped back, flushing slightly for accidentally invading the woman's space.

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You as well," Shizuna smiled softly, unfazed at how close Negi was to her. "Do you have any questions?"

"None at the moment, but I'm sure by the end of the day I will," Negi chuckled weakly.

"One more thing," the headmaster continued, catching everyone's attention. "Konoka, Asuna-chan, since we're short on space with the influx of new staff and students, I'd like Negi-kun to bunk with the two of you."

"What?-!" Asuna shrieked out. "But he's-!"

"A trustworthy young man who has my complete confidence," the headmaster retorted. "Besides, he's by himself in a new country and I'd rather he room with people who I am familiar with rather than complete strangers."

Still, having a teenage boy bunk up with a pair of teenage girls was a rather strange move. Then again, having same teenage boy as a teacher made things to be a more than unusual situation. Still, if the boy could be trusted to be a teacher then he could be trusted to control himself around girls even when he would be rooming with them. Of course, the headmaster was also using this as a plot to pair up his granddaughter with a fine young man. Konoka was difficult about the o-mimais and maybe subtly moving things along with a boy her own age might be a better move than his previous attempts.

"Okay!" Konoka nodded with a happy smile.

"Ho ho! It's settled then!" Konoemon nodded with a pleased smile.

"Oh come on!" Asuna cried out.

* * *

Despite Asuna's arguments, Negi's placement in her room was confirmed. So Shizuna, Negi, Konoka, and Asuna were all walking down the hallways towards the class of 2-A which would be Negi's homeroom class. Asuna was pointedly ignoring him as they walked. Negi just felt the awkwardness in the air and wondered if there was anything he could do to get out of this situation with his new roommate. Things would be awkward since he did strip her to her underwear with just a sneeze even if she didn't know that it was him.

The orangette suddenly snapped to glare at Negi, "I catch you peeping at me, I'll send you back to England without a plane! Got it?"

Without waiting for an answer, Asuna stomped off to get to her class. Konoka gave a brief bow to her new teacher in apology before heading off after her best friend to try and calm her down. Negi grimaced at the warning, scratching the back of his head while a bead of sweat threatened to travel down the side of his face, "Nice girl I suppose…" he spoke, but then muttered, "For a psycho."

"You'll get used to her," Shizuna smiled knowingly as the pair continued to walk. "We all did."

Negi chuckled weakly at the comment as the two teachers approached a classroom marked as 2-A. "Well, here is your class. I also have your student roster," Shizuna explained, handing over a booklet to Negi. Opening it, he saw that it contained the names, pictures, and clubs of his new students. Negi couldn't help but blink at the information which had Takahata's personal notes added in the margins, usually about things that he would need to know about his students such as which ones were related the faculty, or emergency contacts among other things. The students themselves were of course were all girls and they were either very cute or very beautiful. Not one was unattractive. Each of them smiled, looking hopeful, filled with hopes and dreams.

Hope was something Negi found to be wonderful no matter where one found it.

"Are you ready?" asked Shizuna after giving the teenage teacher a chance to read over the roster.

"Depends, are they all like Asuna?" he asked, obvious humour in his voice.

"Oh, no!" Shizuna smiled. "Well, maybe a few. Don't worry about it though."

Chuckling, Negi took the door handle and opened it to enter the classroom proper. He took a moment to glance inside to see his students and couldn't help but gulp. They were all of course energetic and seemed like a rowdy bunch, especially if Asuna was going to be one of them. He felt slightly intimidated by the fact that there thirty-one students that he would have to teach, never mind other classes he was going to have to deal with.

And no, it wasn't because they were all very attractive.

'_Well, no turning back now,_' Negi sighed. Pushing the door open, it made a clattering noise. It may have well been a church bell with how the students clammed up and began heading for their seats. Negi saw how well-behaved the girls were for a teacher just entering the room and it made him feel a measure of relief. Stepping inside, he was suddenly alerted when his wind magic kicked in instinctively to make something hover above his head. Glancing up, he saw that it was an eraser. Inwardly groaning but knowing he had to keep magic a secret, he killed the wind and let the item crash onto his head, making a cloud of chalk dust. The girls instantly began laughing as Negi began waving the smoke out of his face.

"Well, (Cough, cough) that's one way to say hello I suppose," Negi commented, chuckling along with

the girls. Stepping out of the cloud, he suddenly felt his leg catch on something, "Wha-?"

TWANG!

"WOAH!"

THUD!

"OW!"

THOCK! THOCK!

"ACK!"

CLANG!

"OOF!"

THUD!

"Ooooog…"

Negi's sudden bursts of panic and confusion were a result of several things. He had tripped on a rope that had been rigged up in the classroom, sending him head over heels towards his desk. At the same time though, a bucket of water came down on his head, soaking only his head fortunately while the bucket itself got lodged on said target and effectively blinded him. When he was far enough, a pair of suction cup arrows came out of seemingly nowhere to get stuck to his butt as he tumbled along. Fortunately, his humiliating trip came to a halt when he crashed against the desk upside down before gravity reasserted itself onto him and caused him to slump down spread eagle on the floor. The laughter from all of the girls instantly came like thunder, echoing under the bucket on his head.

"Negi-kun, are you alright?" asked Shizuna's voice as the sounds of her high heels clacked across the wood floor. Negi felt gentle hands lift him up to a sitting position while the stars continued to dot his eyesight. The bucket was removed, allowing Negi to see Shizuna's concerned face while the other girls in the room suddenly seemed to stop laughing and instead inhale sharply.

"I'm fine Shizuna-san," Negi smiled, not noticing the relief coming to the older woman's face. "I have to say though, it's certainly the most original prank I ever had the opportunity to be played on me."

Now, Negi caught the looks of confusion he was getting from the girls and a few whispers and mumbles. One girl raised her hand and asked, "Shizuna-sensei, who's this boy? Is he a relative of yours that's visiting?"

"Oh, no, he's..." Shizuna trailed off before addressing Negi, "Go on, this is your cue."

"Ah, OK," Negi said as he stood straight in front of them. "I'm Negi Springfield and from today onwards I'm your new substitute English teacher." He gave them a bow before adding, "Please, I hope we can get along."

3...2...1...

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The young man was instantly swarmed and it was not unlike the time he spent in the train except the girls were now actively crowding around him. They were also asking him questions quite energetically. One girl even had a tape recorder. Most of the questions relayed around where he came from and how old he was, but some of them were actually asking about his relationship status and if he was interested in dating any of them. He was their teacher for crying out loud! He couldn't do that!

Off at one side of the classroom, one of the students approached Shizuna. She wore the standard school uniform and she had an orange shade of hair that she kept in a plain ponytail with the rest of it framing her face. She wore a pair of circular glasses over her brown eyes. If the girl would make an attempt to improve with perhaps some more noticeable clothes, a new hairstyle, and some makeup she would have no trouble attracting a mob of boys on her own. Of course, Chisame Hasegawa made it a point to be plain and ordinary when she could.

While she tried to show indifference at the fact that her new homeroom teacher was a teenage boy, albeit a rather attractive one, she was stillla little stunned over the idea of it. Still, having such an attractive guy anywhere near her school and so close at hand was obviously way too good to be true. Looking to Shizuna, she decided to get some answers and set the record straight. At best, he was an assistant to their new teacher or something.

"Is this some kind of cruel joke?" she asked plainly.

"It's no joke," Shizuna tittered. Glancing over to the front of the room, she saw that the girls were ready to start rioting in their quest to be able to hug Negi or try to ask him a question. Of course, the main vein of the questions that kept popping up were mainly asking for Negi's relationship status, what his cell phone number was, and if he would like to go out with one of them. Seeing that things were getting more than a little excitable, Shizuna decided to bring some order back to the classroom…

"All right girls, that's enough," she spoke up. "He's your teacher. He should be respected, not pawed. Now please stop crowding him."

Various sighs of disappointment sounded off as the girls reluctantly backed away. One person who didn't obey that request was none other than Asuna. She marched straight through the ring of excited girls, right up to Negi. She didn't say a word before she grabbed Negi by the front of his shirt, pinning him against a desk.

"You did something freaky to that eraser didn't you?" she demanded hotly. "I saw it float before it hit you! What did you do?-!"

Negi thought his heart stopped at the girl's demand. She had actually seen the eraser float in that split second before he let it hit him? That kind of sharp eyesight was downright unheard of! You'd have to be some kind of marksman or something to see it happen. A little panicked, Negi decided to go for the tried and true method of playing dumb, "M-moi?"

"Save your fancy Greek words!" Asuna shouted angrily, shaking Negi back and forth in her shortening temper.

"All right! That's enough!" another voice called, punctuated by the sounds of a palm slamming onto a desk. All eyes turned to the source, revealing another student who had soft, regal features with striking blue eyes. What helped her stand out among her classmates was her long flowing blonde hair that reached down to her waist. She seemed to hold an air of maturity around her that the other girls hadn't quite exhibited yet. Although there was a sparkle in her eyes that Negi wasn't sure would mean great news for him.

'_Are those flowers blooming behind her?_' he couldn't help but wonder as indeed it seemed like beautiful flowers were blooming wide behind her.

"Let's just rein it in," the blonde spoke. "We don't want to traumatize our new teacher on his first day." She then glanced straight at Asuna with a graceful smile, "Put him down Asuna. If you want to embarrass yourself then that's fine but don't bring the rest of the class down with you."

"Oh quit your yakking Ayaka," Asuna growled, her fist clenching even tighter. The girl seemed ready to start a fight and Negi was unfortunately trapped in her gasp, possibly to be used as a weapon.

"Now I hear that Negi-sensei graduated out of Oxford even though he's a teenager like us," Ayaka continued. "That makes him more than qualified to teach us, especially you Asuna. Now let him go." The blonde and the orangette stared each other down like mortal enemies about to do combat. The rest of the girls seemed to eat it up but Negi felt like he was about to get caught in the middle. He especially didn't want a brawl to break out in his class on his first day.

Finally, Asuna seemed to back down as she huffed angrily, "The 'goody-goody' act of yours is near perfect. You must sure practice hard."

"Being a 'goody-goody' just comes naturally to me," Ayaka smirked, tossing her hair to the side.

"Heh," Asuna snickered back, making Negi cringe. He could tell she was about to get her kicks in. Anya had done it enough times when she got into an argument with somebody…usually Nekane when they wanted to spend some time alone with Negi. "And here I thought you just wanted to suck up to the first hottie that comes along."

"W-what?-!" Ayaka sputtered, her composure vanishing as her cheeks flushed bright red. Growling not unlike a wild tiger, she stormed up to Asuma before grabbing her by the lapels of her jacket and began shaking her around, "Someone who's into senior citizens has to night to-!"

"Senior citizens?-!" Asuna shrieked back, gabbing Ayaka by her own jacket as the pair began to wrestle.

"Oh don't think we don't know how you moon over Takahata-sensei!" Ayaka snapped at her nemesis. "He's ancient! He's like, thirty!"

"You shut up about him!" Asuna growled. "At least I have decent taste in men rather than immature punks!"

"Oh? Shows what you know! Negi-sensei is a way better choice for a boyfriend! You have no chance at Takahata-sensei!"

"Ha! Deciding to seduce a teacher huh? And you're better than me?"

"At least I'd have a better chance at succeeding!"

"I'd pay to see that and watch you get shot down!"

"Oh? Watch me get a boyfriend!"

Negi watched in morbid fascination as the argument devolved from criticizing one's taste in men to who had the better chance at seducing their teacher. Asuna of course made her intentions towards Takamichi very clear. Ayaka on the other hand seemed to have picked Negi at random (he hoped) to try her own feminine charms on. It was a little flattering, and more than a little embarrassing to listen to as Ayaka and Asuna began to compare what they found attractive in their respective choices. Asuna went on about how Takahata had rugged good looks and was all kinds of strong in how the campus rumours called him Death Specs. Ayaka on the other hand talked about how Negi still retained his boyish charm mixed with maturing good looks all in one sexy package. More than a few of the girls watching the argument gave cheers of agreement in favour of Ayaka's point of view. When both girls tried to describe how both males would look without their shirts is when Negi decided enough was enough. Bringing his fingers to his lips he unleashed a miniscule amount of wind magic to get over the noise and…

"PHWEEEEEEEET!"

The class went silent as they turned to their new teacher who had just let out a whistle that easily overcame all of the noise and cheers that they were making. Heck, it was likely that all of the classes down the hall were able to hear the noise. Thankfully they'd just write it off as the usual 2-A hijinks and just continue with their day. Ayaka and Asuna were frozen in mid headlock of each other, looking to where their teacher just removed his fingers from his mouth and was approaching with a frown on his face.

"If you two don't agree on certain subjects then that's fine. If you don't even like each other then that's fine too," Negi frowned, stopping before the pair. "But I will NOT allow any of my students to simply attack one another inside my classroom! Do. You. Understand. Me?" He finished his last sentence by punctuating every word to get his point across. The girls in the room were silent, slightly flustered by the confidence and authority in their new teacher's voice.

"Yes sensei," both girls nodded. It was a sentiment seconded by the numerous girls in the room.

"Good," Negi nodded, his features softening. "Now let each other go and take your seats. We can begin the lesson."

Shizuna smiled softly as she watched the girls of 2-A take their seats. It seemed Negi had a good handle on what it was that he was supposed to do. He masterfully handled the outbreak between Asuna and Ayaka which to date only Takahata seemed to have the strength to do so. He also managed to capture the entire class' attention, but she had her doubts if it was because of Negi's ability to garner attention towards his lessons or if it was just about how he was something akin to a rooster in a henhouse as most girls schools could be now and then. Well, Negi would have to deal with that himself but she was always open to giving advice.

Asuna's thoughts were downright venomous as she glared at the young man who was moving through the day's lesson...and a quarter of the class checking him out rather than the lesson. '_You may have fooled the others with your fancy words and good looks but you haven't fooled me!_' Picking up her eraser, she tore off a chunk of it before loading it up into a rubber band she had on hand for her pencils and pens. '_Once he floats this everyone will see he's a weirdo and then he's toast!_' She didn't admit to herself that she felt getting rid of Negi would bring back Takahata, but anyone who knew what she was thinking would go without saying. Rearing back the chunk, she let it fly straight towards the back of Negi's head. '_C'mon, float it!_'

BONK!

"Ow!" Negi cried, turning around and rubbing the back of his head. "What on Earth was that?" Looking around, he spotted what looked like a chunk of an eraser on the ground before looking back at his students that were either in a dream-like daze, looking away, or appeared to be paying attention. "Girls, the prank when I got here was all well and good but during the lesson is a bit too much. If you wish to prank me again that badly then leave it for after class would you?" sighing, he returned his attention to the board to continue his lesson. Not even a full minute into the lesson though, he suddenly received three strikes to the back of the head, "Ow! Ow! Ow!"

"Asuna, knock it off," Konoka whispered to her desk mate.

"I'm trying to," Asuna muttered back, firing a fourth eraser chunk which struck true. '_Come on. Float it like you did the eraser!_'

"Problem Sensei?" asked Ayaka. Negi nodded tiredly, once again rubbing the back of his head as a fifth lump joined the other four. "It's Asuna who's chucking the rocks at you. The girl's got more issues than the Mahora Times, plus she's into all those action types of shows. All that sex and violence just isn't good for a person."

"Right…" Negi commented, half-believing the Class Rep considering what he'd seen of the girl's temper and how quick she was to resort to threats. He noticed Asuna's scowl deepen as he was about to turn around to get on with his lesson at long last, but noticed her arm move and something fly towards the back of Ayaka's head. Negi shot out his hand and grabbed the approaching object, revealing it to be Asuna's pencil case. Frowning and ignoring Ayaka's blushing face he looked to the orangette, "Asuna-san, I understand that you're upset that I'm replacing Takamichi but that doesn't give you the excuse to take out your temper on me or your classmates! Now please curb your temper and act like the young lady that I know you are!"

Asuna flushed angrily, having been caught in her stunt and pretty much scolded in front of everyone else. She could hear the chuckling from her classmates and it only served to make her temper stew. Still, she kept her mouth shut since she didn't want to get embarrassed in front of everyone again. Of course, it didn't stop her from planning dark revenge on the foreign boy when she got the chance.

The bell signalling the end of the class rang, allowing the collection of girls to begin collecting their supplies and begin leaving. Negi held his book and staff under his arm as he waited for the ladies to leave. Of course, many of them were making excuses to try and speak to him or saying goodbye in an overly friendly manner. Again, the rooster in a henhouse analogy would have come to mind for anyone that heard of Negi's situation. Not that the girls of 2-A were boy-crazy or anything, but being mostly isolated from boys six out of seven days of the week outside of vacations, some of the more excitable members were certainly hoping to exercise their flirting skills and teenage fantasies.

When finally he was able to leave as the last of his students left, Negi spotted his old friend leaning up against the wall, "Takamichi," he greeted with a smile.

"Hello Negi-kun," Takahata smiled. "How was your first day?"

"It was…an experience," the teenage boy admitted, heaving a grinning sigh. "Are all my classes going to be so OOF!"

That 'oof' wasn't what Negi had intended to say, but he had no choice but to say it when something crashed into his side. That something turned out to be Asuna who having noticed Takahta being nearby, dashed straight towards him and pushed Negi aside so she could get him to pay attention to her instead, "Takahata-sensei! Negi-sensei really impressed us all with how well he knew the subject! I've gotta admit that he's convinced me!"

'_Oh like he's going to believe that,_' Negi thought to himself.

"It's good to know you've given him a shot Asuna," Takahata smiled, patting Asuna's shoulder. "I'm glad to hear that you're going to give him your support. I appreciate it." Waving to the pair, the perpetually smoking teacher headed off to his other duties, having only enough time to check on his friend before heading off. Negi merely scratched his head while Asuna rubbed her shoulder while watching the older man go with a dreamy smile on her face. "Takahata-sensei…" she sighed dreamily.

Negi chuckled slightly at the sight, "So, got a thing for Takamichi huh?"

"Oh zip it!" Asuna bit back, turning around sticking her tongue out at Negi with a frown. "It's not fair. Some punk like you is his best friend and I'm just his student no matter how much I try to get him to notice me," she huffed in temporary disappointment, "Anyway, if you tell him about it I'll but throwing bricks and not rocks next time." The look in the girl's eyes made Negi doubt that she was bluffing and that the word 'bricks' didn't apply to a name for chunks of eraser.

"Duly noted," he sweatdropped. In his thoughts he added, '_Although you probably couldn't be any more obvious unless you shouted your crush from atop the school._'

The orangette made another huff before heading over to meet up with her classmates, Konoka offering Negi a friendly wave as they went. Negi himself felt a little bit drained after that one class, but he could still go for more. He did have a job to do so he wasn't going to simply give up simply because he had a rowdy student or two. Heaving a sigh, he pulled the schedule out of his class roster, telling him where he needed to go next. Hopefully he would have a better behaved class. One Asuna was enough.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a dark and undisclosed location, a man was lying on a couch. He wore red pants, black boots, a black shirt and a worn out red jacket. He also had short black hair and a short, scruffy beard. Nearby stood a woman who seemed to be in high school wearing a black and purple floral pattern dress and a purple scarf.

"This Mahora Academy has such potential. So many potential Gates," the woman said.

"So, when are we gonna do something about it, Medusa!" snapped the young man as he sat up, agitated. "Let's go make a new Phantom!"

"Patience, Phoenix," the woman, Medusa, smiled. "First we need to choose a Gate's that's ready, then we can send someone to do our work for us. There is a Phantom here already who's chosen a target."

"But because of all the magic here, we can just use everyone to make more Phantoms!" he exclaimed.

"The time isn't ripe yet," said Medusa. "But once it is, Wiseman will return to this world again."

* * *

The day wore on and the final bell rang, allowing the students and the teachers to leave. Since Negi had just started, he didn't have any paperwork that needed to be done or papers to mark. Having already prepared his lessons plans for the week and a course syllabus done well in advance, he was one of the few teachers who could leave early rather than leave well after the students already did like most teachers had done. One fellow teacher named Seruhiko seemed to look at Negi enviously as he was still trapped at his desk with the guidance councillor Nita-sensei practically glaring over his shoulder.

Taking a soda from one of the vending machines that were littered about, Negi took a seat at one of the neighbourhood squares that had a rather beautiful statue on a podium decorating it. Heaving a sigh, he took a sip and tried to collect his thoughts. For a first day, things didn't go all that bad save for the beginning in 2-A where everyone got a little wild. None of the other classes seemed to have any sort of problem with him teaching them. Well, the majority of those classes had dreamy-eyed girls watching his every movement. While thankful for the change from the zoo that was 2-A he hoped that the students would get used to a boy their age and focus on what he had to teach rather than what he looked like.

'_Still, what is with that Asuna girl?_' Negi wondered to himself. Granted, he did replace her crush so of course she was going to be a little hostile but her aggression and strength were way over the top for a girl who was her age. Flipping through his homeroom class roster, he spotted her picture among the others. '_Art Club. Well, that doesn't help me out very much. With everything that's happened between us already she's likely to smother me in my sleep. I hope she doesn't find out that it was me that blew her dress off this morning.'_ He gulped at the morbid thought. '_She'd kill me!_'

Trembling at the thought, Negi placed his roster away and tried to decide what to do next. He wasn't quite ready to head to the dorms yet since that would mean running into Asuna again and after how the day yet he wasn't mentally prepared for her just yet. He did hear that Mahora had a lot of different attractions and things to do so he would never be bored if and when he managed to get some spare time to simply hang around. Maybe after the stresses of the first day he should simply take the opportunity of an early day and go have fun to vent some stress?

A tweet was heard and the Garuda Plamonster returned to Negi to report to him. He smiled, allowing the small construct to land in his hands, "Anything to report?"

The Garuda shook its head with a small tweet, indicating that it didn't seem to find anything that stood out. As far as Negi was concerned, that meant that the campus was for the moment safe and he didn't have to worry about certain 'problems' popping up and causing misery.

Letting his eyes wander, he spotted a girl going down some steps carrying a large stack of books. Like the other girls, she was wearing the uniform with a heavy coat and scarf. She had lavender hair that reached down to her chin, but covered most of her face save for her left eye. According to his roster, it was Nodoka Miyazaki, seat number 27. "That looks dangerous," he said . Negi's prediction proved prophetic as Nodoka trailed closer to the edge of the stairs before she tripped on her feet before she began to fall off the side.

"I was right!" Negi gasped, standing up. Reaching swiftly to his ring chain, he produced one and quickly slipped it onto his finger before swiping it across his buckle.

"_**CONNECT, PLEASE!**_"

In a flash of red, a circle of power appeared in the air. The centre was a circle which had something akin to a face on it. The second ring held design at the cardinal points marked with a circle, a square, a diamond, and a triangle. The last ring held ancient and magical writing in it. Negi then stuck his hand into the ring, pulling out a long wooden staff with a crooked top. Chanting a quick spell, a cushion of air formed under the girl to slow her descent. Time given, Negi dashed towards where the girl was going to fall, actually leaping part of the distance to land beneath her to allow him to catch her in his arms.

"Whew," Negi sighed in relief, looking down at his student. "That could have been a tragedy. Are you alright Miyazaki-san?"

"Uhhhh," the bookworm of 2-A mumbled, slowly opening her eyes. "N-Negi-sensei?"

"You...you..."

Negi blinked, realizing that the mumbling hadn't come from Nodoka. Looking up, he felt literally all of the blood drain from his face as he recognized Asuna standing in front of them. Her own face was set to stun, showing that she was not quite sure if she had really seen what she had just witnessed.

'_Oh bollocks,_' Negi thought to himself.

The next moment Negi wasn't entirely sure what happened. Asuna just blurred and grabbed him before he was literally yanked off his feet, leaving Nodoka behind before he was yanked into the nearby wooded grove. There was a flash of pain from where his back was slammed against a tree before he saw the narrowed eyes of Asuna glaring at him.

Asuna began to shake Negi violently. "OK, what the hell did you just do? How did you do that? Are you some kind of alien? An Esper?"

The Garuda Plamonster took offense of Asuna's treatment of its master and started to peck at her forehead.

"Ow! Hey!" the orangette grimaced, swatting at the red construct. One lucky blow managed to strike the little bird, sending it sprawling. At the same time, the little Plamonster dissolved, leaving behind the Garuda Ring which dropped to the ground.

"Uh..." Negi blinked. He hadn't expected the Plamonster to be dismissed with just one smack. Granted, it had been working for several hours already but usually it took something more than humans to dismiss a Plamonster outside of a fellow magi but-

The thought was cut off as Asuna reassumed her grip on Negi, "Okay you! Fess up! Are you an alien or what?-!"

"Okay! Okay! I'm a wizard!" Negi replied, his self-preservation instincts kicking in the face of an enraged girl. His flashbacks to Anya's temper made it a habit for him.

"Either way you're weird!" Asuna snapped back. Her eyes then widened as a thought hit her. "Hey, you're the reason my dress blew off isn't it! You pervert!"

"I didn't do that on purpose!" Negi cried back in panic. "Look, you can't tell about about-!"

"Oh, I am going to tell everyone about you!" Asuna snarled. "By this time tomorrow, everyone's gonna know!" And then Takahata would be back in his normal position as her teacher as was right and proper, but she didn't voice that out loud.

"Well, then you give me no choice," said Negi as he whipped out his staff. This caused Asuna to back away.

"What are you doing?"

"To protect my secret, I have no choice but to erase your memories!" Negi quickly chanted a spell, causing power to radiate from his staff. Pointing it at Asuna, he cast the spell. However, instead of erasing her memories, the repeat of that morning occurred as her clothes were shredded to pieces. Not even her panties were saved.

"That...was not supposed to happen," Negi gaped, mortified at what happened.

And that moment Takahata decided to show up. "...Er...I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

Asuna let out a loud scream.

Takahata wasn't the only one who saw. As Asuna struggled to find something, anything to shield herself from view while fervently praying that it was all a bad dream, another was watching the scene. Hidden in the shadows of the foliage was a bulky figure that was watching the chaos intently.

"So that's my target."

* * *

Twice in the same day Asuna had been humiliated in front of her crush. She was thankfully clothed again. Negi was with her, apologizing profusely. He didn't know what had happened. The memory erase spell was meant to be simple. It wasn't meant to destroy her clothing or anything. He'd done the spell plenty of times. It was one of the spells that the school expected perfection on so he wasn't sure how it had gone so wrong. Did the magic spirits just not understand Japanese or something?

"This is officially the worst day of my life!" Asuna screamed into the air.

"It's not that bad..." he began. Not the best words to choose as she locked her glare at him.

"How much worse can it get!?"

"Well..." Negi sputtered. '_You could be targeted by a monster bent on drowning you in misery so that you'll die and give your body to its comrade to use as a second skin to fool people with._'

"Exactly!" Asuna screamed. "It doesn't get much worse that this! I may as well drop dead after this! Just what the heck is a magician doing here?"

"W-well," Negi gulped. "I'm sort of here as part of my training to be a Magister Magi."

"A what?" Asuna blinked, glaring at the foreign teen.

"It's a sorcerous rank," Negi explained, rubbing the back of his neck. "Basically we're sort of like peacekeepers or guardian angels. They're sent out to area in chaos or in need of help and render what assistance they can." Sighing as they walked towards the school. "Right now since I just graduated, I've got something of a training license."

"Uh-huh," Asuna frowned, gears turning in her head. "So what would happen if someone found out about your magic?"

Negi gulped, already picturing the consequences, "B-Be recalled. L-Lose my license. Probably get turned into an e-ermine. If the secret gets blown badly enough, I'd probably be left that way for life."

"Sounds fair to me," Asuna huffed, making Negi quiver and look at her with pleading eyes. It may have been considered cute back when he was ten, but now that he was fifteen it just made him look immature and perhaps a little bit pathetic. Then again, there was no room for pride when your freedom and humanity was at stake.

"Y-Y-You wouldn't-!" he cried out.

Asuna's mean-spirited smirk as they entered the shoe locker area made Negi's heart sink. Once Asuna got her indoor shoes on though, she lost that creepy grin for a more normal look, "Okay, you want to make up all of the embarrassment you dealt me?"

"Yes!" Negi nodded rapidly. "Just please don't tell anyone about me!"

"Good," Asuna grinned. Her mind was popping with all sorts of ideas now that she had her own personal blackmailed mage on her side. Her first priority was to try and find a way to get around the bad images Takahata had seen of her so she could finally seduce him. "So, just what kind of magic can you do?"

"Some elemental, some not, I haven't really gotten into the really advanced stuff," Negi shrugged. "This training period is partially supposed to expose me to other magicians and hopefully have one of them take me on as an apprentice you know?"

"Right," Asuna deflated. Okay, so the kick-ass stuff was out until the dork could find someone to teach it to him. "Okay, but what about a love potion? I could totally give it to Takahata and he'd be mine in a flash!"

"Uh..." Negi blinked. "Well...I could make one, but those things aren't always reliable and they're sort of...prohibited. Besides, Takamichi already knows what one looks like anyway so I kind of doubt you'd get him to take it."

"Fine!" Asuna huffed. "Then what about some kind of tree that grows money? That way I can just buy his love!"

'_Man you're shallow,_' Negi grimaced. "First of all, no such spell exists although lots of people have tried. In my class alone more than half of the students tried to find a way to make it work. Second of all, even if there was Takamichi wouldn't go for it. Lots of people have tried to bribe him to do things with more than just money and he never went for it."

Asuna huffed again, "Well, I guess he wouldn't be my dream man if he was bought off so easily. You're not much of a magician though are you?"

"Magic isn't something to be used so irresponsibly," he told her.

"Hey, you want to make this up to me or not?" Asuna threatened as they headed up some stairs to the second floor. "You got any other spells?"

"Well, I know one that can let me read minds," Negi shrugged.

"THAT'S PERFECT!" Asuna cried with glee, rounding on Negi. "Great! Let me drop off some stuff Rep wanted in the classroom and then we'll go find Takahata-sensei so you can find out his true feelings for me!" With a grin, Asuna began running for the 2-A room with Negi trying to follow.

"Asuna-san! Wait!" Negi tried to call to her. "That spell is-!"

"You just make sure you do it right!" Asuna shouted back. "I don't want to get stripped again!" Grabbing the door to 2-A, she yanked it open and...

"SURPRISE! WELCOME NEGI-SENSEI!"

Both Asuna and Negi were taken back in surprise. The classroom was now decorated with balloons, streamers and a banner across the blackboards. The desks and chairs had been pushed against the walls so there was more space on the floor for what appeared to be a welcoming party for Negi.

"What is all this?" Negi questioned.

"A surprise party. Great," Asuna grumbled. Reaching into her backpack she produced a bag of what seemed to be sodas. "I guess these are the party favors."

Negi was quickly grabbed by some of his students before he was sat down in the middle of a table as the guest of honour. Many of the girls immediately began chatting with him, marvelling at how good his Japanese was or wondering about him. Normally this may have been somewhat pressing to a normal teacher, but the girls were the same age as he was so perhaps there was more than a little familiarity than a normal educator would receive.

"Well, this is a good way to end the day I suppose," Negi smiled, testing some of the sweets which had been brought out for the party.

"Um...Negi-sensei?"

The one asking his name had been so soft he almost didn't hear it. Turning, he spotted Nodoka approaching, a shy blush on her cheeks just barely visible underneath the fringe of hair that covered the rest of her features.

"Oh, Miyazaki-san," Negi smiled. "I'm glad to see that you're well. You had a pretty bad fall there."

"Y-yes," Nodoka agreed, half-mumbling. "I-I would have broken my neck if it weren't for you. So...so..." Nodoka looked at the floor before reaching into her pockets. She removed what looked like slips of paper and held them out for the young teacher to take. "Here's some coupons from the bookstore. It's not much but..."

"OOOOH! Coupons!"

"For Nodoka, that's first base!"

"Go Honnya-chan!"

Nodoka became quite flustered as several of her classmates teased her about her apparent 'attempts' to stake a claim on their handsome new teacher. The teasing wasn't malicious of course, and it was all in good fun. One of the people who weren't taking part though was Ayaka as she stood up with a dignified air and more flowers blooming behind her.

"I have also gotten something to commemorate the day Negi-sensei graced our classroom," she smiled prettily, producing a cloth-covered object from...somewhere. Grabbing the sheet, she gave it a sharp tug to reveal an actual stone bust of Negi which had remarkably good detail despite having only met each other that day.

"Uh...it's...wonderful..." Negi sweatdropped.

"Jeez! little much Rep!"

"Oh it figures!" Asuna growled. "She sees a guy come around and she immediately parades her bust!"

Despite several others in the room making comments about the overkill of the gift, Asuna's words were the only ones that Ayaka seemed to hear. Flushing angrily, she immediately turned on her schoolyard nemesis, "At least I can keep mine covered up!"

Things degenerated into a catfight with insults hurling at one another while the other students took bet on who the winner would be. Sighing, Negi decided to let the fight run its course since it didn't seem malicious and instead more like one-upsmanship. Looking to see Takahata with Shizuna, Negi casually walked around the fight and approached his friend.

"Hello, Negi. What do you think of your welcoming party?" Takahata asked kindly.

"I never expected quite a welcome, to be honest," admitted Negi. "Did you know about it, Takamichi?"

"I'm just as surprised as you are. Anyway, it looks like your new students have really taken a liking to you," said Takahata.

'_I think it has more to do with the fact that they haven't seen a boy their age in a while_,' though Negi with some amusement. Well, that may have been male pride talking, but it was still something of an invigorating thought.

As he was talking, Negi suddenly felt the eyes of doom piercing his back. Daring to look, he saw Asuna staring at him rather...fiercely as she licked her wounds from the fight with Ayaka. She didn't say anything out loud, but the message was coming in nice and clear.

'_Read his mind and make him love me, or else!_'

Negi trembled. Of all the girls to find out his secret...

The party immediately turned to full swing as some of the girls seemed to find things getting a little too dull for their liking. A pair of them named Chao and Hakase seemed to have developed a small machine that gave off a light show. They set it up behind a makeshift stage they made from the desks which had the cheerleaders climbing aboard with their pompoms. As one, they struck a pose before beginning one of their routines cheering for their new teacher in one big welcome. There was even music to go along with the routine and light show.

On any other day, Negi would have taken the time to enjoy the show both because his students were so welcoming and because cheerleaders were always fun to watch. Not that he'd admit that last part out loud. He was a gentleman after all. With Asuna breathing down his neck though, he decided to use it for a different purpose. Slipping a hand into his pocket, he slipped his right ring off before slipping on a new one. When the music reached a certain volume, he brought out his hand and swiped it across his belt buckle.

"_**TELEPATHY, PLEASE!**_"

Negi knew he really shouldn't be using his rings on such a mundane task, but his normal mind reading spell required physical contact and if he blew it, he figured Asuna would do some awful stuff to him in retribution. So it counted as an emergency to him.

"So...Takamichi," Negi began, making sure his right ring finger was pointed at Takahata. "You seem like you know Asuna better than the other students. Is she always so...high-strung?"

"Ah ha ha ha, no no," Takahata chuckled. "You just had the unfortunate luck of catching her at a bad time. she's a pretty good kid when she's given half a chance."

'_Although this new 'habit' of stripping down at random moments I could do without.'_

"I...I hope so," Negi chuckled weakly. Oh, Asuna was going to kill him.

Further conversation was halted when said girl abruptly grabbed Negi and yanked him away from Takahata, dragging him to another part of the room. Thankfully everyone was too busy cheering on the cheerleaders who somehow got a gymnast and an acrobat by the names of Makie Sasaki and Zazie Rainyday involved in their act with Makie dancing with her ribbon at the front of the stage and Zazie doing stunts from above on an acrobatic bar. How she got it up there was a mystery that would remain unsolved.

"Okay!" Asuna hissed. "Did you read his mind or what?"

"Uh...yes," Negi gulped. Curse his honesty!

"And?" the orangette demanded hotly.

"Uh...well...um..." Negi sputtered. He didn't want to die!

"Spit it out!"

"He thinks you have a stripping habit!" Negi cried out. Thankfully the music kept the other students from hearing. Too bad Asuna was close enough that it didn't matter how loud the music was.

Asuna's jaw dropped and then she gritted her teeth. "You..." She shoved him forward. "Go on, try again!" she ordered.

"Nnn..." Negi grimaced, but the unspoken threat of violence kept him from complaining. Coming through the crowd of cheering students, he swiped his right hand across the buckle again.

"_**TELEPATHY, PLEASE!**_"

"Asuna still giving you a tough time eh Negi-kun?" Takahata chuckled as Negi returned.

"Just laying down the rules of her dorm room lest I cross them," Negi sighed, thinking of an excuse. "She's...spirited, I'll give her that much."

"She always has been," Takahata nodded. "She tries to be mature though."

'_The bear panties doesn't paint that image though._'

"I can only hope to survive the storm," Negi sighed. "Maybe if I-ULP!" His thought was cut off by Asuna rather unceremoniously grabbing him and dragging him off to another semi-private area to interrogate him.

"Well?" she prompted.

"He's thinking about your undergarments," said Negi.

Now, in some aspects this could be considered a compliment. However, Asuna had been wearing cute bear-print panties that were exposed rather unceremoniously. If it were the sexy black lace stuff then she would consider it good that Takahata was thinking about her in her underwear. As it was though with her kiddie prints, it was just another embarrassing thing that her teacher knew about her.

Needless to say, the whole mind-reading tactic had not gone how Asuna had predicted. Then again, she just learnt that magic was real and was unaware about its limits. So, whenever Negi did try to read Takahata's mind about what he thought about her, what was on his mind were the embarrassing incidents that just made Asuna feel worse.

Feeling dejected, the redhead stormed out of the classroom with Negi chasing after her. He should've known something like this would happen. The misuse of magic always had penalties.

Negi eventually found Asuna at the stairs. She looked like she was ready to just run off somewhere and have a good cry.

"Just buzz off!" she snapped as she spotted Negi following her out of the classroom. "I won't tell anyone about your stupid secret so you can just leave me alone!"

"I don't care about that at the moment," Negi sighed. "Asuna, what I was trying to tell you about that telepathy spell is that it only reads the strongest thought in the head at the time. Unfortunately, since humans generally always think about something significant that happened during the day, that strongest thought is always going to be there unless you blatantly ask them about what you want to know which telepathy rather becomes moot."

"Then what good is having magic?" Asuna snorted, grumbling.

"Asuna, magic isn't a crutch or some universal cure-all. It makes things easier to do yes, but it doesn't mean that it's some kind of universal cure-all," Negi explained. A nostalgic smile overtook his face. "My grandfather would always say that magic is not absolute, but true magic comes from the courage from the heart."

Asuna frowned, seeing the advice sounding like something cheesy...but she couldn't deny that it was good advice. She'd been gutsy her whole life and she hadn't been afraid to go for what she wanted and it turned out okay before. Magic would have been helpful, but maybe getting the courage to do things herself would make for better results.

"Okay, I'll be more courageous," Asuna nodded. "Who needs magic? I've got guts."

"Now that would be the real magic," Negi grinned. "So, what do you plan to do to let Takamichi know how you feel?"

Asuna frowned, considering her options. She'd been trying to think of a way to confess for a long time now. She'd always found some excuse not to go for it, but a little bit of courage from Negi, who had no obligation to help her in any way was helping her get her hopes up. Glancing at the teen, she considered using him to practice her confession...but she didn't feel comfortable with that. Maybe if he was a little kid or something, but not as the guy he was now.

"I guess a letter will work," Asuna finally answered. "That way I can make it perfect and set up a meeting for the real thing."

"Well thought out," Negi nodded. "Well then, give it your best and don't give up hope."

"HEY NEGI-SENSEI!"

Negi was immediately glomped around his legs by a set of twin girls who were small for their age and had orange hair done up in short ponytails or buns. If he recalled, they were named Fukaa and Fumika Narutaki. Were it not for their place in the roster, he would have thought them to be in elementary school, not in his class.

"Come on sensei! There's a party going on!" Fuka grinned as the remainder of 2-A began to come out into the hallways.

"Yeah! Why are you out here with Asuna?" asked Fumika with a huff.

"She was just giving me directions to the dorms," Negi quickly replied, not wanting to give his students any sort of gossip material. "Sorry about vanishing like that."

"Well, give us an interview and we'll forgive you!" another student with brown hair tied back in a spiky tail like a pineapple. She was Kasumi Asakura, the 2-A papparazzi who had a reputation for dogging a story until she got it.

"Um...okay..." Negi gulped, feeling like a rooster in a henhouse once again.

Asuna smirked before heading out, leaving Negi to be mobbed by her classmates. She had a letter to write.

* * *

**Mahora Girls Dormitories**

The Party went on for a little longer, Kasumi Asakura getting her story after a lengthy interview. When Takahata and Shizuka finally called the celebrations to an end, Konoka volunteered to take Negi up to her and Asuna's room where he would be staying. When they arrived, they found Asuna surrounded in a small pile of crumpled papers, furiously working on her confession letter. Seeing that Negi arrived, she set her letter aside.

As Negi would be staying with Asuna and Konoka, there were a few ground rules to cover. Well, more than a few. Negi of course knew about boundaries and private time that the girls would need. It wasn't like his old dormitories with the other male student back in Wales. Asuna had way more rules to go over, mainly about not crossing a certain line in the room while she and Knoka were asleep or never touching certain drawers. Negi's room was situated in an alcove which was normally used for a third occupant that had been unclaimed since the new school year.

After dusting it out Konoka had gone to get some food to make dinner, allowing Negi to begin unpacking his backpack for his most essential belongings. Once they were set out though, he slipped a ring over his right ring finger before swiping it across his buckle.

"_**CONNECT, PLEASE!**_"

Asuna looked up from her work, spotting a magic circle appearing in the loft area which Negi was reaching his arm into with it not coming through the other side. After a full few minutes of shuffling about, Negi pulled his arm back to reveal he was holding a large trunk that looked like it was ready to explode with how much stuff was packed into it.

"Big Sister," Negi chuckled, seeing all of the food, magical items, clothes, and supplies that were stuffed into it.

Blinking at the sight of the magic circle vanishing, Asuna just shook her head to examine her latest confession letter. Now that the initial shock had worn off, she could get used to having magic around. So long as it didn't embarrass her.

"Okay," she sighed, reading over her note. "I think that should wrap it up." Asuna had been trying for hours to get the wording just right. She wasn't sure if she should be romantic, intelligent, or some other form of speech but in the end she decided to make it straight and to the point.

Folding the letter, she slipped it into an envelope addressed to Takahata. Heavigng a sigh to keep her courage up, she sealed it shut and got up to leave grabbing her jacket and scarf. "Okay, I'm heading out!"

"Good luck," Negi waved, already guessing where Asuna was going.

Asuna nodded before she shrugged on her cool weather clothes and dashed out with a slamming door heralding her exit.

* * *

As Asuna set out into the cooling sunset air, heading for Takahata's mailbox. She knew where it was since Takahata had been a big guardian for her when she was in primary school and had offered a place to vent her frustrations if things got tough. She'd taken him up on that offer a lot so she knew where to drop the letter off.

"Okay Asuna, you can do this," Asuna whispered to herself. "All you have to do is drop off the letter and then wait to hear from him."

She continued running through the streets, her shoes slapping against the cobblestone streets in their section of Mahora. Asuna kept following the path she kept ingrained in her own memory. What she didn't take notice of was a bulge in the cobblestone moving like water as it followed her like a shark looming in on a scent of blood.

Asuna was oblivious to this as she continued to run. Spotting a shortcut she could use to move along Sakura Lane, she made an abrupt turn and began running down the street, the cobblestones making more noise underneath her shoes as she ran at a pace that made the track team green with envy. Coming out at a park-like area which couples mostly used to gave some romantic time together, Asuna prepared to dash around to her next destination.

But that was when something grabbed her ankle, sending her into the ground with a splat.

"Owwww..." The orangette groaned as pain echoed through her face. Rubbing her face, she got to her knees and looked around. "What the heck was that?"

What she found was what looked like a hand made of sandstone rising out of the cobblestone like it was water. The hand was holding her ankle, holding it like a vicegrip as if trying to keep Asuna from moving anywhere. "What the hell!?"

Then a haunting voice could be heard from within the ground, "Hello...Little Gate..."

Growling captured Asuna's attention as she saw figures emerge from the foliage. All of them looked like they were made of gray stone with lava veins and blac cracks running over their bodies. Their faces were flat with faces that were hard to distinguish between the cracks on their bodies. The only real facial features they had were the bright orange horns emerging from their heads.

"WAAAAAAAAUGH!"

* * *

**Kagurazaka/Konoe/Springfield Room**

Negi was pulling his things from his trunk, filling up his limited shelf space with his collected magic antiques or various other knick-knacks he had collected over the years. His clothes were placed in a special drawer and his supplies managed to find space for themselves. He couldn't reveal his _really_ magical items since Konoka didn't know anything about magic.

"Now for the finishing touch," Negi smiled, reaching into his trunk and pulled out what appeared to be a perfectly polished crystal ball set on a cast iron podium. Bringing it over to his desk area, he set the ball on a velvet pillow. It was one of his most important magical items aside from his rings and belt buckle.

"There," He nodded. "All unpacked."

Just as he finished the sentence, the crystal ball suddenly lit up with bright light. Negi's face was a portrait of shock for one moment before it took on a deep frown as he sat closer to the sphere. After a moment of bright light, the light in the ball dimmed to produce an image. Negi peered into the glass to see the form of Asuna struggling against several stone men with a sandstone hand holding her ankle. The sight caused the English teenager to scowl.

"Asuna-san, is a Gate?" Negi questioned. There had been no clues that she was a Gate but she was surrounded by Ghouls. Not only that there was a Phantom there too. Eyes narrowed, Negi rushed out of the dorm room and ran down the stairs. at a pace almost no teenager could match. Once outside, he put his right hand over the Hand Author buckle.

"_**CONNECT PLEASE!**_"

Reaching into the manifested magic circle. Negi pulled out a motorbike. The machine was encased in a white body with gold accents. The front sported a red gemstone where the headlight should be with a pair of gems mounting the sides. Mounting the bike quickly and putting on a helmet swiftly, he revved it up and raced towards the source of the disturbance.

He just prayed he wasn't too late.

* * *

**Sakura Lane**

"LEGGO! LEGGO! LEGGO!" Asuna screamed, trying to free her ankle from the stone hand's grip as the other stone monsters slowly approached.

"Let go? Why? When I spent all day waiting to grab you?" the haunting voice chuckled back.

"LEGGO! LEGGO! LEGGO!" Asuna continued to scream, not having heard the voice.

"Not until I make you drown in despair" the voice laughed, obviously enjoying her fear. Fear, uncertainty, anguish and pain were all part of despair after all.

"I SAID...**LEGGO!**" Asuna's final cry was actually screamed out with fury before she kicked the stone hand, collecting chi in her foot much like she was taught by Takahata. Her aim was true, smashing into the hand. The impact actually caused the hand to snap, deep cracks spreading through the hand, wrist, and forearm of her attacker. There was a cry of pain before the hand was forced to let go.

"AH! YOU LITTLE BITCH!" the voice seethed as the hand sank into the cobblestone. "Ghouls! Get her! Pin her down! I'll turn her myself!"

A creature of stone rose up from the ground.. It stood tall, taller than her by a good foot or more. Its body was thick, like a boulder but had blue orbs residing around its collar and waist like a belt and necklace. Its shoulders were large and bulky with large blue stones that looked like eyes sticking out from them. The arms were human-shaped, but the right arm had several deep cracks in in while the left one was untouched. The legs were rather featureless, showing no real detail of muscles or decoration, the kneecaps looking like round stones with seams in the rock. The face looked similar to a helmet had a slit where eyes would be and a rectangular slit as a mouth. The top of the head rose up like a Trojan helmet, blue and black lines accenting it.

The Golem Phantom had revealed itself.

"Seize her!" the Golem Phantom demanded, pointing it's good hand at Asuna.

The Ghouls snarled and charged towards the orangette with their arms raised, ready to grab her. Rather than be paralyzed by fear, Asuna at least tried to stand her ground. When one Ghoul charged at her, she reared back with her clenched fist and lashed out with another punch.

"HIYAH!"

SPLAT!

Asuna's fist met the stone chest of the Ghoul. Under normal circumstances, she likely would have broken her hand on the monster's chest before she getting swarmed by the remaining Ghouls to be placed at the Golem Phantom's mercy.

What happened was Asuna's fist sinking deeply into the Ghoul's chest as if it were made of wet clay. The body of the Ghoul actually seemed to be repulsed by Asuna's attack, it's entire body being blasted away as if a splash of water was washing away dirt. The remaining Ghouls stopped in their assault, now unsure about their current plan of attack.

"Oh?" The Golem Phantom admired. "Your magic potential is already this great? No wonder you managed to crack my skin. You will indeed give birth to a powerful Phantom when I get through with you."

"Oh no! You aren't laying a hand on me!" Asuna snapped back.

"You don't have a choice!" the Golem Phantom snapped before pointing at her. "Seize her!"

The Ghouls continued their charge once again, prompting Asuna to begin lashing out at them again. she managed to turn a few more of them into dust, but there were simply too many of them even for her before they managed to get a grip on her and force her down to her knees.

The Golem Phantom then made its way towards Asuna and picked up the envelope she was carrying. "Hm, what is this?"

"Give that back," Asuna growled.

The Golem Phantom tore open Asuna's envelope and took out the letter inside. Ignoring Asuna's protest it began to read it, line by line. Asuna had put her heart and soul into that letter for Takahata but some strange monster was reading it.

Then, the Phantom laughed as it sneered at Asuna. "This is so damn important to you? It's pathetic! I mean he's like twice your age! Then again, I guess you don't have that many choices."

Holding the letter up for Asuna to see, the Golem Phantom tore it in half much to the redhead's horror. She then watched helplessly as the letter was torn to pieces before they were tossed into the air like confetti.

Asuna froze and felt something go thump inside of her as she fell onto her knees.

"That's it," the Golem Phantom cooed mockingly. "Just let the despair fill you. It'll all end soon."

Further actions on the Phantom's part was suddenly cut off by the roar of an energy. All eyes turned to the street where a motorcycle had jumped the curb that mainstream traffic went on and roared down the cobblestone path towards the small gathering. The rider, seeing the group, roared onwards, racing past the group, knocking the Phantom and several Ghouls back but leaving the stunned Asuna where she was. Hitting the brakes, the rider skidded to a halt but not before twisting his machine around. Stepping off of his ride, the Rider stepped into the light of the newly activated streetlights.

"N..Negi?" Asuna slowly blinked.

"Oho!" the Golem Phantom snickered, getting back to its feet. "The new teacher decided to come and save his student eh? Just try it! You can use magic so you're perfect to help create another Phantom!"

"I don't really help create new Phantoms," negi spoke, an uncharacteristic scowl on his face. Raising his right hand, he revealed the ring with the black hand on it. "I'm more of the destroying Phantom type." he then lowered the ring to the belt, activating the magic.

"_**DRIVER ON, PLEASE!**_"

The stone flashed before light engulfed the belt, transforming it into a silver metal belt with the hand marking in the centre much bigger than before with switches on either side of it. Negi then reached to the belt itself and pushed the switches causing the hand to move from pointing to his left side to pointing to his right side. A magic circle lit up in the centre before the belt began to...sing.

"_**SHABADOOBIE TATCHI HENSHIN! SHABADOOBIE TATCHI HENSHIN! SHABADOOBIE TATCHI HENSHIN!**_"

"It can't be-!" the Golem Phantom gasped, for once loosing its cool. "IS that-?-! Are you?-!"

Negi didn't reply as he held up his left hand with the ruby circular gem on it. Pressing a hidden mechanism on it, he pushed a metal siding forward over the stone, making it look like a face with large eyes on it, saying only one word as he brought it to his changed belt. "Henshin!"

"_**FLAME, PLEASE! HII HII, HII HII HII!**_"

Swiping the ring, Negi held his left arm out to the side. In front of said hand, a large magic circle materialized which was bright red and had flames licking at the edges. The circle then moved once fully manifested, passing over Negi's form. As his body passed through it, it emerged...changed.

From head to toe he was clad in a black bodysuit which concealed his form. The silver belt and chain of rings at his side stayed the same, but the rest was different. His chest was covered in red gem-like armour which was a long line down the middle with three sections on each side that were rectangular, but slightly askew. His shoulders were covered in black armor with silver edges that were decorated with dragon-like crests. From his waist hung a robe-like waist covering which was red on the inside but black on the outside. His wrists and ankles sported bands that were the same ruby red as his chest plate. Finally, his head was concealed by a silver helmet which had a ruby red faceplate decorated like the ring he wore, sporting metal lines making it appear as if it had large eyes with antennae rising from the forehead.

Kamen Rider Wizard had made his debut.

"The Wizard?-!" the Golem Phantom gasped. "What are you doing here?-! You're supposed to be in Wales!"

"Special assignment," Wizard replied. "Now get away from my student."

"You don't scare me!" shouted the Golem Phantom. "Ghouls, get him!" The Ghouls charged at Wizard who snapped his fingers.

"Now, it's showtime." He ducked from their attacks and then spun around to hit one Ghoul across the face with an explosive punch. Performing a backflip, he nailed another in the chin before making some distance. He replaced his Driver On Ring with the Connect Ring and set the hand marking on his buckle to the right before putting his right hand over it.

"_**CONNECT, PLEASE!**_"

Reaching into the magic circle, he withdrew his weapon. The gun was of a very unique design. It was silver and bulky with a closed fist mounted on it. Pulling the trigger, he fired at the Ghouls, shooting them down with silver bullets. Knowing he had no time to waste on cannon fodder, he then pulled the thumb which opened up the hand.

"_**C'MON SHOOT! SHAKE HANDS!**_"

He put his left hand on the open hand-like ornament.

"_**SHOOTING STRIKE! HII HII HII! HII HII HII!**_"

Wizard pointed with his weapon at the recovering Ghouls before pulling the trigger once again. Rather than silver bullets emerging from its barrel, magical bullets made of fire did. Streaming through the air, leaving trails of cinders in their wake, the fireballs collided with their Ghoul targets, one for each of them. While resistant to mundane weapory, the Ghouls were very suseptible to magical ones, thus their bodies failed under the magical strikes. Like firecracers, each Ghoul exploded in a small haze of fire which incinerated them, whatever was left dissolving into magical residue.

Snarling, the Golem Phantom raised it's good hand up before sinking it into the cobblestone. After a moment, the Phantom brought its hand bac up, revealing a warhammer made of multiple pieces of rock that looked tied together with chains.

The Golem Phantom lunged at Wizard with it's massive weapon smashing down on the ground as Wizard had performed a high jump to avoid it. Landing, he pulled the handle of his gun up and the blade attached on the top folded out. Now wielding a sword, he slashed at the Golem Phantom. However, the Phantom's rocky skin prevented it from taking any damage. The Golem Phantom drove Wizard backwards with a jab of its warhammer, sending the magical Rider skidding back.

"See? You're not so strong!"

"I guess so," Wizard shrugged but then he switched his ruby ring with a topaz ring before holding his left hand over his belt.

"**LAND, PLEASE! D-D-D-D-DO! D-D-D-D-DO!" **A yellow magic circle appeared under his feet then traveled up his body, turning the ruby red portions of his armor topaz yellow, the sides of his chest armor turning into true squares rather than emulating sections of chest muscle. His faceplate also became square-shaped. Wizard made his way to the Golem Phantom who took a swing at him, only for Wizard to catch the hammer in his hand before punching the Phantom hard in the chest, chipping and cracking its skin as it was driven backwards by the blow.

Some breathing space claimed, Wizard removed the ring from his right hand before replacing it with a ring decorated with an orange stone depicting a dragon growing bigger. Reaching to his belt, he hit the switches on the sides, pointing the palm on the front towards his left side again.

"_**RUPATCHI MAJIKKU TATCHI GO! RUPATCHII MAJIKKU TATCHI GO! RUPATCHI MAJIKKU TATCHI GO!**_"

Wizard then passed the ring on his right hand over the belt again.

"**BIG, PLEASE!"**

A magic circle appeared in front of Wizard and he drove his fist forward. His fist exited from the other side as a gigantic version of itself and it knocked the Golem Phantom flat onto its back. Bringing his arm up, he slammed his gigantic palm upon the Phantom and drove it further into the ground. When the impact struck, a cracking noise could be heard as deep cracks began spreading up from the arm which Asuna had struck.

"I must have caught you by surprise," Wizard commented. "Usually Phantoms put up more of a fight than this."

"Grrr!" The Golem Phantom grumbled, pulling itself up, it's body covered in cracks, most of which spreading up from it's wounded arm. "If it wasn't...for that girl...I'd be able...to take anything...you've got!"

"_**FLAME, PLEASE! HII HII, HII! HII HII"**_

"Anything I got then?" Wizard frowned, returning to his Flame Style. He wanted the most destructive outpot for this next move. He swapped out his right hand ring for another one depicting a kick surrounded by a flaming dragon. He then passed it over the Wizardriver. "Fine then. Take this!"

"_**VERY NICE! KICK STRIKE! FABULOUS!**_**"**

A magic circle appeared beneath Wizard's feet, chanelling up his legs. He twisted on the spot, to allow the magic energy to distribute evenly. Moving to a crouch, he allowed his right foot to be covered in flaming energy. When it looked like his leg was actually on fire, he charged forward before doing a frontflip on his hands which positioned him with his back facing the Golem Phantom. He then kicked off the ground in a high backflip, positioning himself for a corkscrew kick. The Phantom was too injured to move as a red magic circle appeared above it. Wizard came down with his foot extended, striking the centre of the circle. The entire construct ignited with fire energy before stretching to allow the blow to land on the Phantom's chest.

An explosion like a small bomb went off, sending the Phantom tumbling backwards with a scream. Hitting the ground, a red magic circle appeared above it as magical power completely opposite of its own invaded it's body, tearing it apart from the inside out. With a final scream, the monster exploded in a fiery haze, letting the magic circle fade away.

"Asuna-san!" Wizard remembered what he'd came here for. He found her in the exact same spot. She didn't look good. Already, her body was showing signs of breaking apart.

Asuna was down on her hands and knees, her entire body breaking apart. Cracks were spreading all over her body, glowing purple. It was a deadly sign that a person had already created a Phantom within their subconscious Underworld and it was fighting to escape. Wizard knelt before her and said, "Asuna-san."

"Negi...?" she asked as she stared at Wizard's red faceplate. "What's happening to me...?"

"Something I'm never letting happen again," he swore as he took a ring from his chain, sporting a stone that was cut to resemble his faceplate.. "Do you trust me?" he asked.

"I...have no choice, do I?" she asked. He took her hand in his.

"It'll be fine. Let me give you the hope you'll need." He slipped it on her finger then set his belt buckle before holding her hand over it.

"**_ENGAGE, PLEASE!_"**

Asuna fell unconscious as a magic circle appeared over her. Levitating, Wizard hovered over the circle and dove into it feet first. He traveled down a tunnel of magic circles with a purple background which would bring him into Asuna's Underworld.

He reached another magic circle, phasing through into what appeared to be reality again. Looking around, all of the scenery was in black and white, indicative of being in a memory. He easily recognized the place as being in Mahora albeit one he hadn't seen before. Spying one of the nearby buildings, he saw groups of small children coming out through the doors to meet their parents, all of them dressed in primary school uniforms.

Passing through the crowds, none of which took notice of them, he saw a small girl with orange hair tied in twin ponytails approaching a beardless and slightly younger Takahata.

"Happy Birthday Asuna," he smiled warmly, making the younger girl smile back. "I managed to get you something of a gift today. I hope you like it."

"Weally?" the little Asuna gasped in delight.

"Yup," Takahata smiled. Reaching into his pocket, he came back out with something in a small wrapped package. Asuna quickly took them, tearing away the paper as little kids were used to doing. For a brief second, Wizard saw the bell ornaments which Asuna was wearing before she started squealing in delight.

"So pwetty!" she beamed. "I lo-!"

KRACK!

Then entire scene froze as deep purple cracks appeared between little Asuna and Takahata. Wizard tensed for a moment before the entire crack smashed open to reveal a purple void. What came out was a twisted monster Negi recalled from his studies known as an Efreet.

"Efreet Phantom huh?" he frowned. "Why do the Phantoms in the Underworld have to be so big?"

The Efreet was a massive wolf-like creature with a mane of flames and a humanoid upper body. It also had horns and it let loose a roar as it started to attack everything, making more and more cracks as it attempted to break free from Asuna's Underworld.

Wizard had to leap to the side to avoid being trampled. He then slipped on a ring and placed his hand over his buckle.

"_**DRAGORISE, PLEASE!"**_

A magic circle appeared above and a dragon burst out of it. The beast looked more mechanical than flesh, covered in white armour with gold claws and horns, small wings, and a gemstone on its chest. Possibly that was representative of the magic he held in his control though. The dragon let out a roar and attacked the Efreet. However, Wizardragon then slammed its tail into Negi, seemingly interested in killing both the other Phantom and him. It was only logical since Wizardragon was a Phantom as well, Negi's inner Phantom. Naturally it was hostile to just about everything .

"_**CONNECT, PLEASE!"**_

Wizard pulled his Machine Winger bike out of the magic circle and rode on it towards the Wizardragon. A burst of magic from Wizard's body allowed it to leap into the air above the fight between the Wizardragon and Efreet Phantom. Coming down on the Dragon Phantom's back, the Machine WInger split into a pair of wings with only the handlebars and seat remaining. The machine came down and attached perfectly to the Wizardragon's back, becoming more docile as Wizard's magic allowed him complete control.

"Now, let's end this!" Wizard shouted.

Wizardragon unleashed a roar before shooting several fireballs which collided against the Efreet Phantom, smashing it against the primary school and causing more purple cracks. Wizard then drove his mount forward, smashing into it and pushing it along the building before a final thrust knocked it into the streets, making even more racks along the way.

"Asuna won't last if this keeps up," Wizard frowned. He hated long battles in the Underworld since if it went too long or got too wild, the Phantom would have a better chance of escaping if something wasn't done. "Dragon! End this!"

The Wizardragon bellowed and flapped it's new wings to shoot up into the air. Coming to a stop several feet into the sky, he began a downward dive towards the Efreet Phantom to take it down once and for all. The Phantom snarled at the descending pair and coated it's body in flames before leaping on top of the primary school and into the air to tackle both enemies out of the sky.

"Don't think so!" Wizard shouted, swiping his Kick Strike Ring across the Grimoire Stone once again.

"_**VERY NICE! KICK STRIKE! FABULOUS!**_"

Wizardragon bellowed before the Machine Winger detatched and became a bike again. Wizardragon likewise shifted and transformed into what looked like a massive foot with its horns and claws taking the forms of the talon toes with the rest forming the rset of the foot. Wizard came down and connected his own foot with the end, attaching himself to it while the Machine Winger connected behind him to help keep him in pace. Once the transformation was complete, the massive foot became engulfed in magi power, projecting the image of a giant Wizard wielding the construct.

The Efreet Phantom attempted to shred the attacker, but it's claws only bounced off the steel skin before the impact smashed against it's head, pushing it down towards the ground. The impact struck the road hard, making more purple cracks but the Efreet Phantom was crushed beneath the magically enhanced attack, causing it to explode in a fiery haze.

Rather than cause damage, the explosion actually caused all of the purple cracks in the area to close themselves up. All around, the people began moving again as Asuna's Underworld was restored. Wizard leaped off his Phantom, allowing it to vanish into a magic ring back into his own Underworld where it was imprisoned.

Walking over to the Machine Winger, Wizard shook his head, "And here I thought Mahora would be peaceful. I should have known better."

* * *

Asuna sat there for what felt like forever, very sure that she was on the brink of death. It felt like she was drowning in despair and losing all sensation in her body while something was trying to break its way out of her skin. As soon as the event began though, it suddenly ended with the purple cracks in her body sealing themselves back up again. Beside her, another red magic ring appeared before Wizard drove out on top of his motorcycle. Coming to a stop, he turned to see Asuna before his armor was stripped off by yet another magic circle, leaving him as Negi Springfield once again.

"Are you all right Asuna-san?" he asked, dismounting his machine.

"I...I think so," the orangette replied, slowly standing up. "What...what was all that?"

"Something I had hoped was dead and buried," Negi sighed, approaching her. "It seems that rather than going away, the problem just moved somewhere else. Maybe this was the reason I was assigned to Mahora. To fight the Phantoms."

"And Phantoms are...?"

"Creatures brought to this realm through despair," he answered. "Come on, let me take you back to your dorm. After what happened, you'll need rest." Asuna picked up the pieces of her heartfelt letter but Negi put a hand on her shoulder. "You can always write another one. The Phantom may have destroyed your letter, but not your feelings."

"You're right," agreed Asuna, smiling back at Negi and his encouragement. She looked at his machine. "So, that's your bike, huh?"

"Yes," Negi answered, already guessing what her next request was going to be.

* * *

As Negi drove the bike with Asuna riding behind him, she looked down at the ring she now wore on her right hand. Negi had given it to her. She blushed at the sheer thought of it. Didn't he know the implications of giving a ring to a girl? Deciding to scold him about it later she put her arms around Negi and closed her eyes, feeling tired after her ordeal.

* * *

Unbeknownst the the pair, the brawl had been watched by two sets of eyes from atop of one of the buildings. One was a small girl with long blonde hair dressed in a black lolita outfit. Her eyes were blue and her features foreign, but nothing but pure malice came from her. She was one of Negi's students, Evangeline A. K. McDowell, otherwise known as the vampire Dark Evangel, a living nightmare and one of the threats parents would use to make their children behave.

Beside her was a taller girl with very pale Japanese features who was wearing the school uniform. She had long green hair which fell to her backside while her ears were some kind of metallic fins. Also to note were the metal sections on her neck and kneecaps, indicating that she was a robot. Most of her classmates simply assumed she was a cosplayer of some kind and never brought it up, but few knew the truth. She was Chachamaru Karakuri, Evangeline's maid and battle partner.

"Recording complete Master," Chachamaru spoke, a soft click echoing from her head.

"Good," Evangeline nodded. "I thought that the brat coming here would be the final piece in getting out of this dive, but if he's using Wizard Stone magic then things are going to get tough," her face was sour for a moment before a grin overtook her features. "Just like that idiot's son, getting into things that should end up killing him but coming out on top anyway."

"Master, what about the Phantom?" asked Chachamaru. "Databases suggest that they never act alone if one has come to Mahora then there is a significant danger ratio, even for you."

"True. Despair's a tricky thing even for the most powerful," Evangeline nodded. She of course knew about Phantoms. Pretty much every magical who dealt with the darkest and foulest magics knew about them. Not many were stupid enough to deal with them though considering how they were summoned and their general attitudes towards everything non-Phantom. With how self-righteous most magical organizations were though knowledge about them was erased or destroyed to try and prevent them from coming back. As a result, not many knew how to deal with them. Magic was the way to go, but Wizard Stone magic was by far the most effective, driven by willpower and hope to counteract a Phantom's despair.

"We'll sit on this information for now," Eva finally decided.

"Master?" asked the gynoid.

"We squeal about the Phantom then all the magicals on campus will go into fits and make my plan that much harder to execute," The high daylight walker explained. "Best see what those old ghosts are planning and go from there. Besides, seeing the brat fight will help us plan for whatever he's got in store."

Nodding, Chachamaru picked up her tiny master before activating her internal thrusters and heading off into the growing night towards home.

She still had to prepare Master's dinner and bath.

**TO BE CONTINUED...**

A/N: Okay everyone, this is a preview/idea I had. I was challenged to make a Kamen Rider Wizard idea by Star AJT 84. So in response, I with some help from Chrome put this little gem together, pardon the pun. Our little Negi is a teenage Kamen Rider who is ready, willing, and able to protect his classroom of honeys from the evil of the Phantoms. Maybe if this gets enough love Chrome and I will continue to try and expand the series since we're wrapping up Rosario + Kiva soon. Well, leave reviews if you like this fic and we'll see what happens.


	18. Fate of the DEAD

**I do not own High School of the Dead or Fate/Stay Night. I only wrote this for fun and not for profit. Don't like it? Don't read it.**

Fate of the DEAD

By Ten-Faced Paladin

Chapter 1: Knight against DEAD

The sky was clear that day when the modern world ended.

He was walking down the streets of the new city he had found himself in. He was of an average, but physically fit height which spoke of skill, grace, and power. He wore simple clothes consisting of a dark purple hooded sweater with a black line on the sleeves, jeans, and dirty sneakers. They weren't quite the kind of clothing someone of his…nature would have worn, but to him they were something to be proud of wearing. They were homage to the very brave man who summoned him, a man who put his life on the line to rescue a little girl from a terrible fate. A man who gave his life for that cause but in the end failed. A man who did it all for the woman he loved and the daughter she had been forced to give up simply because she was born second.

If anyone deserved to be called a hero, it would have been him.

This man's face was revealed to the world, his hoodie lying unused on his back. He had dark hair, almost purple really, tied back in a ponytail with the rest framing his face. His features were indeed handsome even if they were obviously foreign to the Japanese people around him. He looked to be Caucasian, his skin fair and without blemish. Many women from the teenagers, to the adults, and even some older women flushed and giggled when they saw him. He would offer a kind smile and a nod, but that would only make them giggle more. He was polite when one or two wished to talk to them, but he did not offer any kind of opening if they attempted to try and have him take them out on a date.

Lancelot of the Lake did not deserve such things.

The former Berserker had felt himself be summoned to this Japanese City a month ago. He had no instinctual knowledge of what was going on like in the Grail War, the lingering mangic from his summoning to Kariya Matou the only thing allowing him to read and speak Japanese like he was born there, perhaps with an English accent though. He didn't have any indication of any sort of class, which was both a disappointment and a relief. A disappointment on the one hand since he had no advantages like say a Saber or an Archer would but it was also a relief since he wouldn't be the mad Servant Berserker either.

His last memories, those of dying in the arms of his king, brought him a kind of solace and relief. He died as any true knight should, died as a proper Knight of the Round. Knowing that he was at least worthy enough to die in such a way brought him solace that perhaps he would one day be permitted to move on from his pain and shame. He died as a knight, so perhaps it was time to try and live more like one than he did before.

He had searched the city looking for any sort of clue as to why he had ended up there of all places. The city was called Tokonosou City, but unlike Fuyuki City it seemed that there was absolutely nothing special about the place at all. There was no feeling of magic in the air, no hint that anything like the Holy Grail War was taking place, and most of all there was absolutely no sign of any sort of magi. He was drifting alone and without any sort of direction. The most interesting thing going on in the city was the fact that one of the local politicians was being investigated because he had come into a number of funds for his election campaign through supposedly less than honest methods.

Fortunately, as a Servant he did not require food or sleep so he hardly needed to find restaurants to eat or hotels to sleep. His prana allowed his clothes to be clean no matter likewise with his body. If he wanted to rest, he simply sat down on a bench, closed his eyes, and allowed his mind to rest for a while. An hour or so later, he was refreshed and ready to move again. Oddly enough, he kept ending up with money in his pockets for some reason. Usually it came from helping an old lady move their groceries or helping them if they needed something and they simply had to reward him for his generosity. It wasn't much, but his lack of hunger helped him keep it safe for a time until he felt the urge to eat hit him. Needless to say, it added up.

Tokonosou it seemed was a rather peaceful place all things considered. On the other hand though, it wasn't perfect either.

He'd seen that himself.

(FLASHBACK)

_Lancelot was nice again wandering the streets of Tokonosou, wondering what exactly it was that he had been summoned for. It had been several days since he appeared in that park, dressed in his full armour. There were no magi around to show who had summoned him, no knowledge imparted to him to reveal why he was there, and there was no sign of magic anywhere at all. He was for all intents and purposes cast adrift in a world that was no longer his own. Worst of all, he had no one to supply him more prana, making his current stores limited._

_Shifting his appearance to a more normal one to conserve his energies, Lancelot went on the search to find out what was going on. That had been a few days ago and so far he had made absolutely no progress on that front._

"_What purpose does a night have in this modern age?" he wondered aloud as he walked. The sun sank lower on the horizon, reflecting his own thoughts on the mystery of his current existence. Very few leads were present and as he chased down each one he simply found no answers waiting for him. The shadows of the mystery continued to grow and offer no insight into how he would find purpose in Tokonosou City when there was no Grail War to fight._

"_No! Stop it! Please!"_

_Lancelot stopped, turning his gaze to a gap between two buildings. Hiding in the shadows between the buildings were a pair of people. The first was a man dressed in rather loud and messy clothes, making him look sloppy and brutish. He had tattoos on his revealed skin, marking him out as a gang thug who were somewhat the norm in the back alleys and criminal elements that appeared in just about any city, not just Tokonosou. The other was a woman. She had long blonde hair that reached down her body and a particularly developed figure. She wore a white blouse and black skirt, making it possible that she was leaving work when she was approached by the thug. Her arms were pressed against the wall as the man held a knife in one hand and molested her sizable chest. Her face was filled with fear and tears were leaking from the corners of her eyes as she pleaded with her captor to stop._

"_No! Stop!"_

"_Oooh, baby you don't want me to stop! Not unless you want _this_ sticking into that tight tummy of yours!" He held his knife up the woman's face to show he was serious._

"_Ah! Uh…uh…"_

"_Now I can be gentle or I can be rough. Your choice."_

_That sentence was all Lancelot needed to hear before acting on that knowledge. A disgraced knight he may have been, but he was still a knight and he would act like such! Turning, he dashed down the alleyway to where the man was attempting to rape the blonde. He swiftly grabbed the thug by the shoulders before abruptly tossing him away, sending him sailing with a surprised cry into a pile of trash with a loud thud. Lancelot's strength as a Servant easily allowed him to do such, the force of the throw plus the impact knocking the degenerate out quite easily._

_The scum dealt with, Lancelot turned his attention to the man's intended victim, "Are you alright?"_

_The blonde woman blinked, the attack on the criminal happening so fast she hadn't reacted to it at first. When it dawned on her that she was indeed safe, she began to tremble as tears finally began tracking down her face. Sniffling, she then broke out into a loud sob before lunging at Lancelot. He didn't resist as she wrapped her arms around him and openly cried into his chest. She sobbed out her thanks over and over again, quite obviously relieved to not have been taken advantage of._

"_It's all right," Lancelot whispered to her, resting a hand on her head. "You're okay."_

_Holding the woman as she sobbed, choking out her thanks for his intervention, Lancelot found it. A twinge in his chest that felt warm after so many years of cold despair and guilt lifting through it. It was the feeling of protecting one who could not protect themselves. It was a feeling he had thought that he had long forgotten and would not be able to feel again._

_He felt pride as a hero._

(END FLASHBACK)

The woman introduced herself as Shizuka Marikawa, a nurse at a local school. She had simply insisted she do something for Lancelot in thanks for saving her. He tried to dissuade her, but it seemed she would not be denied. She all but dragged him to her favourite confectionary where she filled a plate of cakes and sweets for the both of them. From there, she proceeded to chat and talk about herself, going on and on. Lancelot of course listened. Having someone to talk to was likely how she wished to deal with the trauma she had been forced to deal with.

Shizuka was of course a beautiful woman. Her soft features, exotic looks compared to those in the far east, innocent brown eyes, and voluptuous body no doubt had men running for miles in hopes of wooing her. She was something of a paradox though. Medicine required a sharp mind and extensive knowledge, which Shizuka had when it came to the healing arts. Everything else…she was somewhat dim in certain ways. She wasn't stupid by any means, but it was just the feeling one had when they talked to her that she may be a little unclear in certain subjects. She was also skilled physically in the craft, but Lancelot had seen for himself that she could be rather clumsy when given half the chance in anything physical.

When they parted after their unusual meeting, the former Knight of the Round figured that he really wouldn't see her again in such a large city. He was quickly proven wrong on that front. Shizuka somehow had the odd ability of just showing up at certain points where Lancelot was passing through. She would then stick to him like glue and chat about whatever crossed her mind apparently overjoyed at the fact she found a friend to walk with. Again, Lancelot would of course listen and offer his own opinions now and then. He didn't truly mind the company, having a pleasant travelling companion for at least a little while was always welcome. Part of him felt he truly didn't deserve a friend after all of his wrongdoing in life, but another part, a growing part, argued that his king had forgiven him by allowing him to die in her arms. It was time to start forgiving himself as well and the first step towards that would be to connect with somebody.

"Shizuka has been asking me to visit the school so we could catch up," Lancelot sighed to himself as he pondered what to do with his day. So far, he had been finding no leads and had more or less wasted another day trying to find some sort of purpose for his summoning.

Maybe meeting his friend would do some good…

"EEEYAAAHHHHH!"

The former Knight of the Round stopped when he heard the scream echo through the streets. His reflexes as a trained knight went into action as he began running. Dashing through the streets and past numerous people, he came to a halt when a tide of humanity charged towards him screaming and begging for help. Lancelot manoeuvred around them, trying to see what was going on and offer what assistance he could. As the last of the people got past him Lancelot could see what was happening…

…and he saw hell.

The cars that were on the road were packed end to end, some of which were swerved off the road and crashed into some of the stores. Some of them were on fire, sending black smoke rising into the air almost like living sickness. Several of the cars were unfortunately on top of bystanders who were dead, their blood pooling underneath the cars and their bodies pinned between the twisted heaps, underneath them, or up against the buildings.

It didn't stop them from moving though.

Their skin was mottled and gray, their eyes rolled back and white. Twisted broken limbs exposed bone in some cases, open wounds were revealed, still spilling out blood. Chests were caved in, hunks of flesh were missing, bones were broken, but even with all of that damage the bodies were still moving. They groaned, they shuffled, they moaned…

…and they ate.

Several groups of the mutilated humans were kneeling over something, tearing away at it before swallowing messy chunks of it, sending blood to splatter over the roads and sidewalks. Organs, hunks of muscle, flesh, everything that could be torn off were removed and swallowed by the mutilated humanoids. The former knight could only watch in appalled horror at what was happening before him. Never before, even in the brutal wars he fought in had he seen such brutal savagery. The barbarians and enemy armies never actually _ate_ the people they killed!

One group of such monsters suddenly stopped eating their quarry and began standing up. Lancelot gaped as the victim they had captured, a man in a suit with his chest cavity torn open with his organs missing chunks of them or missing altogether, quite suddenly stood up. His skin was just as gray and mottled as the others with his clothes and body stained with his own blood. Getting to his feet, he gave out a groan which eerily matched the moans of the others. Turning in a direction, the turned man hobbled off towards one of the other moaning and grumbling mobs of its fellows, the others lurking to find food of their own.

"What…what madness is this?" Lancelot gaped, honestly appalled at the sight.

"NO! NO! NOOOOO!"

Lancelot's mind returned to himself as he turned to see the source of the sudden screaming. On the sidewalk was a woman, one who had fallen down at some point. One of the gray-skinned monsters had her by her ankle and was pulling itself towards her, or was trying to pull her towards it. She was kicking at the ghoul's face, her high heels managing to keep it at bay. One particular kick had ruptured one of its eyes, making another sickening scene. Unfortunately, the ruckus had caught the attention of more of the creatures as they shambled towards her, their hands grasping as if they were blind.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Lancelot's reflexes and instinct kicked in before his conscious mind did. Looking, he spotted the trunk of a nearby car that had popped open when it crashed. Dashing to the open vehicle, he tore off the covering at the bottom to reveal a tire replacement kit, part of which was a tire iron. Grabbing it, Lancelot allowed his prana to flood into it which in turn made the item turn pitch black with purple veins. The tool wasn't just _a_ tire iron anymore, but it was _his_ tire iron. Now it was part of his legend, his story, his history, his Noble Phantasm.

Turning to where the woman continued to kick the ghoul to no avail as more came closer, Lancelot reared back his arm before he actually threw the tire iron at the monster on the ground. Normally using a tire iron in such a way required skills at throwing weapons not to mention experience in using such an unconventional weapon in such an unconventional way. Ordinarily only someone who mastered the martial art called Moo Gi Gong could have a reasonable chance of doing such, but Lancelot of the Lake was far from ordinary. The tire iron flew through the air missing anything which it could have bounced off of and ruined its aim before it collided easily with the ghoul's head, the socket easily crashing through its skull, dropping the beast dead.

Lancelot didn't remain idle though. He was running just as fast as he had thrown the tire iron. Dipping around cars and the dead, he raced by on car which had all it's doors open and an umbrella sticking out. It likely belonged to a commuter who was prepared for a rainy day, literally. Lancelot scooped up the item as he passed, letting his prana transform it into his Noble Phantasm like it did the tire iron. Approaching the woman as the ghouls began their lunges for her flesh, the disgraced knight struck first with a powerful swing which impacted against the first monster's face.

Normally, an umbrella was hardly an ideal tool in attacking somebody unless you tried to stab them with it. The item itself was just too thin and flimsy to be of any use as a striking weapon, not beyond a few hits. If you were lucky, you'd disorient the target a little but in the end you'd likely do more damage to the item itself rather than to the one you were attacking with it. This wasn't the case when the umbrella was in Lancelot's hands. The item struck the monster's face with tremendous force, making a sickening cracking noise that broke both the monster's nose, skull, and neck from the sheer force before its body flew back into its comrades, knocking them all down with meaty thuds.

The woman blinked, surprised by the sudden action. She didn't get time to contemplate it before her saviour grabbed her by her wrist and hefted her up to her feet. She got a glance at his foreign features before she was pushed away with a barking order, "Run now!"

The woman didn't need any more prompting as she bolted down the street to find someplace safe. The former knight turned his gaze to the down ghouls that were now attempting to get back up and continue on the hunt. Raising his improvised Noble Phantasm, Lancelot prepared to strike down as many of the monsters as he could find so to give survivors time to flee to safety. Before the horde could come though, the window of the building he was standing next to suddenly shattered as even more ghouls, likely having been spawned inside came crashing through, piling on top of the former knight.

To an observer, it would have been a growing common scene in the chaos of one unfortunate person being dragged down by the dead and being devoured before joining their ranks. What few stragglers that remained assumed as such as they continued to run for some measure of safety. Had anybody had the courage to stay longer, they would have seen the newest pile of undead suddenly vanish inside a veritable explosion of purple haze that looked like a mix between fire and smoke. The ghouls caught in the middle of it were sent flying as the source of the miasma stood up with a powerful roar. Each of the flying monsters smashed into walls, cars, and concrete, smashing their heads open in a few cases.

Standing in the middle of the ring of battered and twice dead ghouls was Lancelot, clad in his suit of armour once again. The armour was configured in jagged edges and ornate dark designs. Harry could have almost sworn that the armour was steel trying to emulate evil. From the knight's back hung several black strips of fabric with ornate black metal tips, possibly for decorative purposes or maybe some other unknown reason. The limbs looked powerful, with all of the heavy armour fitted upon the human frame, making the figure appear to be someone Harry did not want to mess with. The helmet was smooth with a single slit for eyes ending with cross-like markings on either side. From the back of the helmet a long blue ponytail-like ornament hung and while it travelled, it turned from blue to black. The knight stood, looking around him, seeing only more death and more monsters.

As a warrior, he knew he should have attacked these monsters and end the threat they represented once and for all. Numbers of monsters like these weren't really going to be much of a concern for a Heroic Spirit. On the other hand, his knightly instincts told him to follow the people and protect them. Destroying the enemy could wait until the people were safe.

A clanking noise alerted Lancelot, making him look down. One of the ghouls had grabbed onto his armoured ankle, trying to bite through it to his flesh. He watched in morbid fascination as the creature continued to bite until it's own teeth broke with sickening snapping sounds but it still kept trying to bite him. Disgusted, he lifted his foot up before stomping on the creature's head, cracking it's skull…or rather pulping it.

A siren echoed through the air, turning the knight's attention from the ground to the air. The sky was decorated with black plumes of smoke, hovering over the city like death veils. Lancelot didn't consider the symbolism of the plumes of smoke in front of him though. His gaze was focused on the distance, where there were more plumes of smoke rising into the air, some flames rising up to follow them.

"This is happening all over the city," he muttered to himself. His mind instantly flashed to Shizuka, innocent, gentle Shizuka. In hell such as this which was rapidly spreading she would likely be swept up by the tide and quickly killed. More than that, she was likely at work at a high school where numerous children were likely going to be made a target of the ghouls as well. A flash of his former Berserker rage passed through him at the thought of someone so innocent being slaughtered and eaten like dog food.

Abruptly turning away from the moaning monsters, Lancelot dashed through the rows of crashed cars in the direction of Fuyumi High School. He knew the location well since Shizuka _insisted _that he take a tour with her so she could show off where she worked. It earned him many envious glances from the male faculty members while he could feel several females eye him up.

Coming to the back of the traffic jam, Lancelot spied a motorcycle laying on the ground. Seeing an opportunity, he walked to the motorcycle and hefted it onto its wheels before mounting it like he had seen some of the people in the city do before. Gripping the handles, he allowed Knight of Honor to work its magic and flood the machine with its prana. The machine already had a purple colouring, matching his armour perfectly. All of the steel turned an ominous purple and glowing streamlines of purple appeared on the surface of the machine.

'_Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R,_' Lancelot thought as his recent acquisition became his Noble Phantasm. '_Highest damage claim loss rate in America, but in times like this that speed is what I need._'

The engine roared to life as the machine responded to Lancelot's will rather than the turn of a key. The machine's roar echoed louder and fiercer than anything the designers and builders could hope to achieve. If they heard it, they would have cried while sucking their thumbs wondering how they could have failed so greatly in their fields. No longer did the machine look like a stylish motorcycle meant to impress people and participate in illegal street races, but now it looked like a modern-day war horse ready to ride.

Lancelot gunned the engine, letting the beast let out a terrifying squeal as the tire kicked up smoke on the street before roaring off with a black tread mark to show where it went. Lancelot drove with all the skill of a master at the art of riding motorcycles, dipping and swerving around the parked cars or the odd shambling dead which as he feared, were popping up all over the city no matter what turn he made. If anything they seemed to become even more numerous in certain areas that he frequented such as shopping centers, travel terminals, and other such places. Given how full a school could be on a given day, Lancelot feared that his friend's place of employment would be just as bad or worse.

'_Just hang on!_' He silently prayed.

* * *

**Fujimi Academy**

Takashi had stayed up late the previous night, the night before everything ended.

He had been feeling sorry for himself that night and was beating himself up over it. Rei, his ex-girlfriend had broken up with him before suddenly started going out with his best friend Hisashi. Normally it would be upsetting enough to a teenage guy who entered his first relationship. What made it that much worse was the fact that Rei was a childhood friend and they made the promise to get married one day. Everyone around them were sure that they would follow through with that promise. Their parents were even backing up their kids' relationship. Then it all fell apart and Takashi blamed himself for it, remembering that he had taken their relationship rather lightly being secure in his position as Rei's boyfriend and future husband. He knew he hadn't been as attentive as he probably should have been, especially after Rei got held back for another year. She said she wanted space so he gave it to her but he didn't really try to figure out what was going on after that. They drifted after that and the next thing he knew, he saw Rei and Hisashi enjoying a date while he was out on the town one day. She made it official not long after that.

Funny, a few hours ago he thought his world was ending.

How small his problems seemed in the scope of the world right now.

"GYAH!" the black-haired teen bellowed, smashing his bat into one of _their_ faces as he and a group of his fellow students and one faculty member dashed towards one of the buses that their school would use to transport their sports clubs to the matches and functions they were participating them.

The reanimated corpse of someone he was pretty sure he knew from class went down with a grow part of the head cracked from the force of the blow. Behind it, another former students in the form of a girl with short dark hair and a bloody chunk missing from her thigh lunged for the boy. Takashi swerved to avoid he lunge before the long-haired kendo student Sakeo Busujima dashed into the space before smashing the monster's head with her bokken, sending the ghoul down to the dirt dead once more.

Takashi Komuro was just an average student and an average guy. He had short black hair that spiked wildly, something that was both natural and a bit of styling in his minor attempts to stand out from the crowd in his rebellious years. He wore the black school uniform but in the midst of the chaos it had several bloodstains on it from all the heads he'd smashed since all the hell began to end. He wasn't the best student out there, but he really wasn't the worst either although some of his teachers would have several arguments otherwise.

Saeko Busujima was a fellow student who wore the school uniform of a green and white blouse with a green skirt, but the length of the skirt marked her out as a third-year student. She had long purple hair that reached down past her waist and a sharp set of eyes and graceful, beautiful features. Her figure was definitely drool-worthy, if how her clothes settled on them was any indication which included a sizable bust. It was part of the reason why she was voted the hottest girl in the entire school. The rest of her popularity with the boys stemmed from how mysterious she was and how she carried herself, not really talking about herself or being involved in much of a social life.

Directly behind the pair were three more of their classmates and the school nurse, Rei Miyamoto, Saya Takagi, Kota Hirano, and Shizuka Marikawa.

Rei was a pretty girl with long brown hair which reached down her back but was tamed in a ponytail. She wore the same uniform as Saeko, but the skirt was shorter to mark out she was a second-year student, but she was the same age as Saeko. She was again very attractive and incidentally on the same list that marked Saeko as the hottest girl in the school, and her spot was well earned with her athletic figure and bountiful chest mixed with her usual friendly personality. She still retained her position even if she had been grumpy at times lately. In her hands was a mop handle fashioned as a staff with a pointed tip, the mop itself having been torn off to make it a proper weapon. She showed off her skill with it as she twisted it in the air and bashed two of _them_ at once, showing just why she was vice-president of the sojutsu club.

Behind Rei was Takashi's other childhood friend Saya Takagi. She was a pretty girl who much like Rei had a figure many of the girls in school envied her for. Her hair was a an incredibly light shade of red, looking more pink than anything and tied into twin ponytails. Her eyes were golden, but her pretty features were etched in a near scowl as she struggled to keep her mind sharp in the crisis. She wore a smart pair of glasses, but Takeshi knew she didn't like to wear them if she could help it. She was easily the highest-scoring student in the school in terms of academics and she wasn't so humble that she wouldn't constantly remind people of it.

Hovering around her was a slightly overweight boy named Kota Hirano. He like Takashi wore the black uniform of the school although he kept it closed since he was slightly self conscious at how his stomach stuck out. He had black hair which hung down to his jaw line and square glasses which had black frames, making him look more than a little nerdy. Takashi didn't know him too well personally, but they did have the same class together. What made him stand out though was the fact that he was a gun-nut and military otaku. If the military did it or if it could shoot something then he could tell you everything about it or know where to go to find out. In the hell of this situation, he seemed to be in his element though. Earlier, he managed to fashion a rifle out of a nail gun, an eraser, a pencil, and two rulers. An odd combination, but one that worked since he was sniping off zombies left and right as they tried to get near the group

Last in the small band was Shizuka Marikawa, the ridiculously busty school nurse who was widely regarded as something of a ditz. It didn't stop boys and even some male teachers from oogling her when she passed, hoping that she'd trip or something so that her assets could move about on their own. Takashi wouldn't be too ashamed to admit that he'd entertained fantasies about her not long after he met her. That was before he and Rei decided to get serious. Honest. She wasn't armed, but was instead carrying a duffel bag filled with medical supplies and with her medical knowledge it made her something of an indispensable member of the group.

At the rear of the group in a vanguard-like position was Takuzo Okamoto. He was one of the sports jocks with short brown hair and gold eyes. He was dressed in the school uniform and had a sports towel hanging from his shoulders. He was armed with a baseball bat, his weapon of choice and a particularly wise one since he was one the baseball team so his body was conditioned to use the thing. With him was his girlfriend Naomi who had chin-length black hair, brown eyes, and freckles on her cheeks. When the panic of a mob attacking the school and killers already inside, Takuzo and acted quick and pulled Naomi aside to avoid the panic that set in. After that, he had grabbed a baseball bat from the supply room and both he and Naomi tried to find a safe place. After meeting up with some of their fellow students like the redhead Kawamoto Nakamura, among some male students who were lucky enough to escape from the dead, they tried to escape but were cornered by the zombies before Takashi's group saved them, allowing them to team up to try and get to the bus so they could escape.

'_And the day started off so peacefully,_' Takashi thought to himself.

Takashi had begun his day like normal, but by the time the afternoon began rolling in he felt so fed up with himself he skipped his next class to hand out at his pity corner near the roof. Saya berated him for being stupid about his breakup but he blew her off. In the midst of his apathy though, he saw the front gates of the school where four teachers were trying to make some drunk guy who was banging against the gates go away. The gym teacher, Mr. Tejima attempted to use force by reaching through the gate and smacking him around, but the drunk instead grabbed the man's arm and bit through his wrist. Tejima fell back and it was obvious from even Takashi's viewpoint that he died not long after. Having the majority of the vital veins in your wrist bitten out would do that. The female teacher Kyoko Hayashi went to try and help him, but then the weird stuff just kept coming.

The dead teacher quite suddenly got back up again and proceeded to try and bite out Hayashi's throat. He would have too were it not for the red spear suddenly slip through the gates and pierce Tejima through the chest and pull him back to the iron bars. Takashi had to blink since he missed it, suddenly realizing that there was a man in a green suit standing at the gates with a long red spear and a short yellow spear in his hands. The red one had saved Hayashi by stabbing Tejima while the gold one was sticking the man outside to the ground through his heart…but he was still moving, trying to get up to grab at the man. The green-clad man then actually _leaped_ over the gate before running to Hayashi-sensei's side to ascertain if she was harmed or not.

Meanwhile, one of the younger teachers who Takashi thought was Tejima's assistant ran up to his boss' body to try and help him with his injury. He got within stepping distance before Tejima lunged at him, biting into his throat and taking him down, tearing his flesh apart in an effort to eat it. The man in green and Ms. Hayashi along with the remaining teacher all made a run for it back to the school. Takashi didn't need to see any more as he dashed back to his class to get Rei out of it. It took a small minute of convincing, but once Hisashi saw that Takashi was serious, he managed to convince Rei to come along. It was pandemonium in the halls soon after when one of the faculty ordered an evacuation but was attacked and killed over the P.A. System. The school was chaos as everybody made a mad dash for the exits, pushing, shoving, punching, and even trampling one another in their panic to escape.

Rei, Takashi, and Hisashi had gone to the management section of the school to escape but were cornered by Wakisaka the social studies teacher who looked to be infected like the guy outside was. They attempted to beat him off and Rei stabbed him, but it didn't slow him down. Hisashi pinned him in a headlock, but the man just turned his head at a sickening angle before biting into Hisashi's arm. Takashi killed the man soon after. The group then got to the rooftop and holed up there for a few hours, but soon Hisashi began getting sick and they all discovered the horrible truth. Anyone who was bitten by one of _them_ would die and become one of _them _in only a short time, explaining why although the attack happened only a short time ago, such a large number of the school population was already turned and attacking the rest. Hisashi began vomiting blood before he went into convulsions, dying soon after. Rei denied it the entire time, but Takashi knew that it was happening. Despite Rei's pleas, he ended Hisashi's life and kept him from hurting anybody.

After a moment to get some semblance of sanity back, Rei and Takashi escaped the roof where they soon met up with Saya, Saeko, Kota, and Shizuka. They made the plan of using the school bus to escape with any other survivors they found, which they did in Takuzo's group. Their initial plan was to sneak past _them_ since it seemed sound was what triggered their actions because their senses of touch and sight were already dead. Unfortunately, one of Takuzo's group mishandled his weapon, making it bounce off the railings as they were attempting to escape which made an echoing noise through the school and attracting all of _them_ in range. The group was now fighting their way out, trying to get to the bus.

"Keep moving!" Takashi shouted, smashing another ghoul aside. "We're almost there!"

"Well hurry up!" Kota shouted back. "I can't keep this up forever!"

Saeko leaped ahead, smashing another zombie in the head before she sided to a halt her eyes narrowed in aggravation.

"Why are you stopping?-!" Takashi shouted as he caught up to his senior. He got a good look at what Sakeo saw before his face fell slightly. "Oh shit."

Ahead of the pair with their group catching up was a veritable wall of _them_ standing between the living and the bus. Saya likewise say the scene and her mind immediately figured a possible scenario. With all of the chaos of people trying to escape, a lot of people no doubt would have figured that the bus would have been a good way to escape. No zombie would be able to stop an oncoming bus in any conceivable way. Unfortunately, the people who ran to the courtyard were some of the first ones to be attacked and turned. Likely the gates and the vehicles were going to be swamped, but this much was surprising even for her.

"Oh damn," Kohta grimaced as he saw the scene.

"We're fucked," a boy without the school's jacket moaned, incidentally he was the one who accidentally alerted _them_ to their presence in the school.

"No thanks to you!" a gaunt-faced boy who was with Takuzo's group snapped angrily.

"They're coming up from behind!" cried Naomi as Takuzo turned to face them.

"We'll have to fight our way through," Takashi frowned, gripping his bat.

"Are you nuts?-!" demanded Saya. "There's no way we'd be able to get through to the bus without getting bitten!"

"If we don't fight then we're going to get bitten anyway!" Takashi snapped back. "So unless you've got a better idea then we're going to have to fight!"

Saya would have retorted with something sarcastic laced with panic given the current situation, but it was cut off by what sounded like an angry roar of some kind. It was loud, unnervingly so and it was enough to give all of the zombies around them pause as their decaying brains debated on the issue of going after the louder noise which may mean larger prey or going for the closer noises which offered immediate satisfaction. The group of survivors turned towards the sound on instinct, seeing the front gate of their school and something approaching it FAST!

"Is that-?" asked Rei

"You're joking, right?" Saya gaped.

"Oh my," Shizuka blinked. "Is that-?"

"A knight on a motorcycle!" Kota cried out.

That was indeed what the group was looking at, a knight clad in black armor racing towards the gates of the school on what looked like a high performance motorcycle that was louder and faster than any such machine that anybody in the group had witnessed before in their lives. It was fortunate that they were stunned speechless, allowing the zombies to begin focusing on the noise of the machine which made them begin to turn away from the survivors. The knight, if he knew about _their_ habits, didn't care as he continued to race towards the gate. Coming closer, the motorcycle popped into a wheelie and didn't drop in any measure of speed as he continued his charge. The tire of the bike struck the gate and smashed through, making the iron gates fly open before the knight came back down. Still not losing speed, the knight let the engine roar before racing towards the group, swerving around some of the dead bodies that had not revived yet.

Racing through the parking lot, the knight began to lean over the edge of his machine as he raced towards one shambling dead in particular. This one Takashi had recognized as his friend Morita, a blonde who kept his hair slicked back and was hopeless with women, having asked Saya out three times and got shot down each time. The reanimated body of Takashi's friend was shambling towards the racing knight, an actual guitar clenched in his hands. The knight kept his charge going, racing up to the zombie. To the shock of the group the knight reached out as he passed Morita's body, actually _grabbing_ the guitar from his decaying hand as he went. Mortia was knocked clean off his feet from the force, his arm obviously broken from the angle of the elbow joint.

The knight continued it's motorized charge, raising the guitar over his head. The group's eyes then widened as a blackness spread from the knight's hand over the guitar, turning the instrument black with purple lines accenting it looking almost like veins. The knight, a weapon in hand, then turned towards the group point blank before jumping the curve to land in the courtyard and race towards the group.

"Oh shit!" the gaunt-faced boy cried. "He's coming this way!"

The zombies began to lunge for the knight, some of them missing due to their low speed compared to the bike. Some managed to get lucky and lunge for the rider as he came right at them. They didn't get far as the knight swung his improvised weapon, smashing their heads in. Well, 'smashing' would be a somewhat light term for what the guitar did on impact. Obliterated would be a much better term as the guitar smashed clear through the heads of the zombies, leaving bottom jaws or no head at all after he hit them. The force of the blows sent their bodies sprawling, landing with meaty thuds.

"Holy shit!" Saeko and Takashi gasped at once.

Saya gaped at the sight as well, but again her genius intellect returned quickly. The kind of guitar that the knight was using was acoustic, otherwise made of wood and hollow inside. At best, he'd get one solid whack out of it before the instrument began to break or shatter but somehow this guy was using it like a war club and it was cracking heads wide open as if it were made of rock! What the hell had this psycho done to the thing?

The knight smashed through several more zombies before swerving to avoid the survivors. He roared past the group, smashing more of _them_ as he went, knocking them back. He continued on, actually circling the group, smashing more and more of the ghouls to give the survivors some breathing space. Swerving around the group a total of three times he came to a stop, staring down a group of the dead with the survivors standing between them.

"_Move!_" the knight spoke. None of the group dared argue as they got to the sides. The knight hit the acceleration but didn't let up the break. The engine revved several times as the purple lining of the bike started breaking, like ink spilling out onto white paper. Steam began rising from the body of the bike, making Kota fear that the machine was going to explode if the pressure kept up. When the machine began to pulse with a purple light, the knight let the brake go, allowing the machine to roar at it's loudest and sounding like a mad beast. The knight twisted the accelerator, making it stick before he kicked off and landed on the dirt in a kneeling position. The bike roared forward, not stopping and somehow staying up despite no one driving it. Leaving a glowing purple trail in the dirt, the machine raced into the mob of _them _which caused the group of survivors to halt in the first place.

_**BOOM!**_

The resulting explosion turned everything purple as the bike was destroyed in the impact. The zombies in the centre of it all were incinerated, turning them into ash. The ones nearby were sent flying through the air, smashing against the school, the surrounding fence, skewered on the fence itself, against the bus, or simply hitting the ground. All of them were burned and smoldering, but still groaning. In some cases though, their limbs were broken, burned, and torn preventing their movements beyond futile shambling.

The survivors could only gape at the destruction, but relief came when they saw that the bus was perfectly fine, a little black from burns and bloodstains on the sides but otherwise fine. Around them the immediate threat of _them _was dealt with for the moment since the majority of them were dead all over again while the rest had been knocked away from the shockwave. The reflexes of the survivors allowed them to brace themselves in time, a luxury that the dead did not have anymore. Standing up, dusty and shocked but otherwise fine, they turned to look at the knight who had stood up.

"I had a dream about this sort of thing once," Kota mumbled, his mouth going on automatic since his brain was unavailable.

"Knights, motorcycles, and explosions?" Saya frowned, hearing the nerd speak. "Tsk! Typical guy!"

Kota blinked, but smiled at Saya's words, "Wow, thanks!"

"It wasn't a compliment!" the pinkette snapped.

"_What are you people waiting for?_" the black knight demanded as leveled a gaze at them, ending the squabble before it began. They tensed up, fearing he may turn on them like he had done the zombies. Even if he had saved them, he was still practically unknown. He then heard shouting and turned his gaze towards stragglers coming towards them, led by a man in glasses and a pinstripe suit. Chasing them were more of them that hadn't been caught in the blast.

"_Keep running,_" the black knight ordered, hefting up the guitar. "_I will clear passage for them._"

"Wait!" Rei cried out, breaking the silence which had fallen on the others as the knight had arrived. "Forget him! We're better off without him!"

"What?-!" Takashi gaped, all eyes, even the knight's turning to the brunette. "Rei, are you even listening to yourself?"

"Just trust me!" Rei insisted. "If we save him then we're all going to regret it! So just let him go and let's get the hell out of here!"

"_Just keep going! We don't have time to argue about this!_" the black knight bellowed, ending the argument before he turned and ran towards the group of approaching students and one teacher. The few undead around them able to stand up were already beginning to do so. Soon they'd be going after the group again to try and devour them.

Takashi and Rei glanced at one another, but the y both knew that they couldn't stand around and fight. The group ran for the bus once again, easily reaching it before piling on board. Kota took point, sticking his nail-rifle out of a window to snipe any of _them_ that wandered too close to the bus. Takashi and Saeko kept their guard up at the door while Saya, Shizuka, and Rei boarded with the school nurse hopping into the driver's seat to try and start up the machine. The black knight on the other hand took a running charge towards the approaching group to cut off the advancing horde.

The approaching group saw the black knight coming right at them and freaked out for a moment, only to realize moments later that they were not his targets. Rather, he was aiming for the horde of _them _which were approaching. Lancelot dashed right past them before laying into the first row with him guitar, smashing them to the ground, splattering blood across the soil without a second thought.

"_GO!_" the knight bellowed, pointing at the bus. "_Get to the bus and don't stop lest you wish to die as one of them!_"

"Thank-you! Thank-you ever so much!" the man in the suit gasped before he and his group continued on their dash towards the bus for safety.

The black knight turned his attention back to the hoard, smashing several of the members away with the guitar turned dangerous weapon. Several swings thinned down the numbers, but the noise had drawn more of them, all of them shambling out of the school to try and get in on where they thought food would be available. To the survivors, the knight looked like he could very well take them all on if he wanted to. Instead, he raised the guitar over his head, turning it to the pulsing purple with the purple veins spilling out haphazardly. The weapon changed, he threw it at the approaching mob, allowing it to explode with another resounding boom. It wasn't nearly as explosive as when the bike went up, but it was enough to turn several of _them_ into red smears on the ground and knock the rest onto their faces or backs.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

* * *

Lancelot's head whirled to the source of where he heard the scream. Several feet ahead of him, but well behind the group which was just now boarding the bus was one of the survivors, a boy with glasses being pinned on the ground by one of the ghouls who was savagely attempting to tear him to bloody chunks for consumption.

"HELP ME! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" the boy screamed desperately, the ghoul's chomping jaws drawing closer to his throat.

"_Hang on!_" Lancelot shouted, abruptly changing his direction and running towards the downed by. Continuing to run, he scooped up a rock when had been loosened from the grown from the explosions from his Broken Phantasms before allowing Knight of Honor did it's work. Rearing back his arm, he laucnhed the rock with the force of a bullet at the ghoul's head. The blow struck home, going straight through the ghoul's head and killing it a second time mover before it slumped over the panicked boy's body.

"GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!"

Lancelot reached the downed boy and grabbed the back of the dead body and tossed it away. The boy looked up to the black knight, his face pale and bloody. However, Lancelot noticed that it looked like somebody had punched or even kicked his face short time ago. The boy's glasses were broken, his nose was bleeding, and his jaw was swollen an angry red.

"_Are you alright?_" he asked, pulling the boy up, but the boy whimpered and lifted up his leg.

"My...my ankle," the boy whimpered. "That...that bastard Shido...he was going to let me be eaten so they others could get away!" A mix between crazed anger and sheer panic swam over the boy's features. "He...he KICKED ME! He kicked me right into that thing's arms when I tripped!"

Shido. Lancelot knew that name well since Shizuka always seemed to have a complaint about the man at some point or another. He was one of the people who would leer at her and had several complaints lodged against him that never seemed to go anywhere. It seemed that even innocent and caring Shizuka considered the man to be scum and now it was proven true as far as the knight was concerned.

"_Come on, I'll take you to the bus,_" said Lancelot as he hefted the boy onto his back. "J_ust hang on tight and don't let go._"

"Al...alright..." the young man nodded, wrapping his arms around the knight's neck. He really didn't have any other options save to be eaten.

Lancelot quickly made his way to the bus where Shizuka was at the driver's seat. The dead were finally back on their feet proper, those that could move their limbs anyway, and were now slowly heading for the bus."_This boy's injured his ankle,_" Lancelot informed her. He looked over his shoulder and saw more coming. Climbing into the bus, he set him down in an empty chair. Lancelot paid no mind to the stares he was getting. Seeing as nobody was coming for the bus, except for the ghouls the knight decided that it was time to get the hell out.

"Drive Shizuka-sensei!" shouted the girl with the staff.

"Okay! Here we GO!" Shizuka called out, pressing down on the gas pedal. The bus roared to life before pulling out of its parking space and racing towards the front gates. Several of the ghouls were run over, making the bus shake and tremble from the thumps. Even Lancelot had to grip on the headrests of two seats as he stood in the isle of the bus in case something happened. A sharp swerve followed, but Shizuka quickly took control before she smashed through the gates that Lancelot had broken through on his arrival. Turning onto the street, Shizuka began to race down the street away from that hell they had all found themselves in.

* * *

As they drove away, relief fell upon members on the group. However, Rei was still tensed. Shido's presence in the bus did not reassure her one bit. If anything, his presence was just as bad as the zombies if not worse in her opinion. Saeko, who'd taken lessons in first aid, and found a first-aid kit which was supplied on the bus helped to put a bandage around the ankle of the male student that the black knight had saved. Speaking of said knight, he was standing in front, arms crossed, as he looked at everyone. Not many had survived. From a school filled with hundreds of students, it had been reduced to only a handful of survivors.

He had his arms folded as he gave each and every one of them a critical look. Meanwhile, Saya's mind was at work. As a genius she tried to make sense of things and the black knight had pretty much done the impossible. Even if this whole situation was insane, he was just something that shouldn't be around in modern times. Who was this guy, where did he get his armor, and how was he able to do the things he'd done? Kota, on the other hand, couldn't stop staring. He was mentally fawning over the black knight's armor. Guns were his life blood and obsession, but defensive technology was just a big a thing to him as was the history of it so he knew a fair bit about knights and armor, even if he knew way more about guns and such.

Everyone couldn't help but stare at the knight who was simply standing there. He wasn't saying anything or moving beyond a slight change to keep his balance with some of the turns that Shizuka was making in her drive. It was obvious from his actions that he was there to help them from the zombies, but what other intentions did he have? For all they knew, he was some kind of psycho who was going to kidnap them all and do horrible things with their bodies. He certainly looked the part with how dark and twisted his suit was.

Shido seemed to be the first one to regain his sense of speech. Getting up from the seat he had chosen and ignoring the glare he was receiving from the student with broken glasses, he made a relieved smile as he approached the group at the front of the bus, "Thank you all for helping us." he looked up to the knight, "Especially you, risking yourself in such a way for perfect strangers. A suit of armour would certainly help though." He chuckled softly. "Although I have to question exactly how we were so lucky as to have someone of your skill appear so suddenly. Are you with Busujima-san's group?"

"_No,_" the knight replied. "_I arrived to find a friend. Fortune allowed me to help save as many lives as I did._"

"Oh?" Shido pondered, adjusting his glasses. "And who might that friend be I wonder? I don't recall ever seeing one such as you around our school."

Saya frowned as she easily saw the slight accusing tone in Shido's voice. She could tell that Shido was trying to put the knight against the wall, to try and expose him to their group and likely force him to conform to them and cement his positioning. Saya couldn't disagree in trying to keep him around considering what she had seen him do in rescuing them. Of course, she could see Shido was trying for psychological pressure. That in itself was a bad idea since if it went wrong, this guy could crush them all with just about anything he could lay his hands on if when she saw him do with a rock and a guitar was true.

Saya was expecting either the knight to grow more agitated or try to explain himself under the pressure that Shido was beginning to try and push onto him. He was silent for a moment, making the pinkette fear that he was about to do something bad for their health. Instead, she and the others on the bus were treated to the sight of the knight's armour being covered in a purple glow that illuminated everything softly before dimming, making the nightmarish armor vanish from the knight's body. What was behind was an admittedly handsome man who looked Caucasian, likely from Europe or North America. His hair reached to his shoulder and his narrowed eyes were...slightly alluring but the proverbial shadow over his features made him look as dark as his clothes.

"You have seen me before," the man replied, a European accent heard in his voice even if he spoke flawless Japanese. "Shizuka-san was quite eager to show off everything in her place of employment and I think we saw each other once or twice."

"Eh?" Shizuka gasped, turning away from windshield. "Lance-kun?-!"

"Shizuka-sensei, watch the road!" Takashi shouted out, causing the blonde nurse to turn her attention back to the road, smashing one of _them_ in the process. Thankfully, it didn't compromise her path or steering.

Rei blinked, but then felt a deep pleasure in seeing Shido's usually impeccable features twist for a moment. Gossip around the school was that Shizuka-sensei had gotten a boyfriend whom she had wanted to show off at the school. A few of the students heard it from the teachers gossip and spread the news. A lot of Shizuka's fanboys, like Takashi's friend Morita, went into depression over it or denied it to be true. From how Shizuka reacted to seeing his face, it seemed that there was something to it. Seeing that the guy now had a link to their group and not some random stranger Shido could pressure into being subservient, it served to calm down some of the more suspicious of them since he was very well connected to them at least arbitrarily.

The man recovered quickly though, putting a smile on his face despite whispers from some of his group as to what they had seen, "Well then, if Marikawa-san trusts you then I'm perfectly willing to give you a chance. Skills like yours will go a long way to keeping us safe."

"Hey, hey! Where did you get that suit and how did you make it vanish like that?" Kota questioned excitedly, completely missing the tension in favor of seeing something cool.

"It's a trick I know," 'Lance' explained, his arms still crossed and his eyes still hard. "If we grow to trust each other, I'll explain."

"I look forward to that explanation," Shido nodded. Stepping back, he adjusted his tie, likely out of habit before he glanced down to Saeko, whom was cleaning blood and other matter off of her bokken. "Ah, Busujima-san are you the one leading this group?"

Saeko glanced up at her homeroom teacher and withheld the urge to scowl. She never liked or even respected Shido much beyond his role as a teacher. While most wouldn't have caught it, she often spied him leering at some of the female students in his classroom. He did it to her once, but when he saw her scowling back he made sure to keep his eyes off of her unless it was in some official capacity. It didn't stop him from offering help in his subject when he 'felt like she needed it' which in all sense seemed like more of a suck-up attempt. Trained by her father, Saeko had a good eye on reading people through their movements and everything she saw about Shido was that he was narcissistic, elitist, and an opportunist. No doubt part of the reason he tried sucking up to her was because her father rubbed elbows with some people in high positions such as Souichiro Takagi whom took lessons from the man. Her own standing as a rising star in the kendo world likely would make her own social standing rise if she chose to pursue that path.

"We have no leader, but worked together to survive," Saeko answered, returning to her work.

"Oh really?" Shido commented slowly. "I would advise against that should we make any further moves. We're going to need a leader to survive, someone to manage everything and keep it orderly."

Rei scowled before turning to glance up at 'Lance', "You're going to regret saving him! I promise you that!" she whispered harshly.

"I may already do," 'Lance' replied, his eyes still not leaving the majority of the bus passengers.

"Everyone!" Kota suddenly called, "Look! The city!"

'Lance' looked and what he saw was Hell on Earth. "May God help us..." he uttered as he saw what was happening. Pillars of smoke could be seen rising up from the numerous buildings that composed that part of the city and even more of the city beyond. Everyone had no doubts that if they had the windows open and the wind wasn't sounding off they would be able to hear the screams of people suffering below at the hands of the dead.

It was a nightmare, and one that nobody could wake up from. A nightmare in the waking world where the true horrors could not be ignored. Coming off of the freeway, Shizuka drove the bus down into the city proper. The nightmare only became more vivid at that, revealing blood splatters on the streets and random corpses everywhere, mostly moving but others rarely not moving at all.

"What happened?" said 'Lance'.

"It's not just happening here either, Lance-kun," Shizuka informed him. "It's happening all over the world."

"What?" 'Lance' gasped, turning to his friend.

"We saw it on television," explained Shizuka. "This happened in just a few hours without warning." Her grip on the steering wheel tightened.

"Has the world suddenly gone mad?" he questioned. How could such a disaster happen in the span of a few hours all over the world? It was impossible. The only way it was even conceivable in his mind was through the use of magecraft. He was no expert in the field though, but if a Caster-Class Heroic Spirit had been summoned like he was then perhaps they would have a better idea.

The bus drove onward, having no real destination for the time being. Passing on the streets, they continued their travelling along the waterfront. It wasn't as chaotic as the inner-city, but the signs o chaos was still there as one of _them_ which used to be a fisherman wandered across the street before Shizuka smashed him down without even slowing down. It seemed even her optimism was draining in the harsh light of the current situation.

"Shizuka, would you like me to take over for you?" 'Lance' offered. The blonde woman was definitely drained, emotionally and physically. Even as she tried to maintain a positive attitude, nobody could survive such a traumatic experience without a few scars. He'd known men who'd broken down before the horrors of war against normal men, much less the walking dead.

"I'm fine!" Shizuka smiled, but the white knuckles on the steering wheel told 'Lance' otherwise. "Don't worry about me! I'm tough!"

'Lance' sighed, but nodded. The woman was notoriously stubborn and hopefully just driving while being protected from the ghouls by the bus would be enough to help her calm.

But it didn't stop others from reaching their breaking points.

"Look! We're not going to make it if we keep going like this!" one of the students, a teen with bleached blonde hair and brown sides. His name was Tsunoda, one of the delinquents of the school who made a name for himself by being an asshole. He was standing in his seat and bringing attention to himself. "Why do we even need to do what you guys planned to do?" he demanded hotly, pointing at the front of the bus as Takeshi's group. "You didn't even ask us! Besides, who the fuck is this weirdo you have running with you?-!"

Saya scowled, already pulling up a head of steam when she usually had to deal with the stupid idiots that seemed to keep finding reasons to talk to her. 'Lance' had taken his position back at the front of the bus with his arms crossed, looking almost like a bouncer ready to kick out an unruly customer.

"Hey, if you haven't noticed, you were the ones who wanted to board the bus in the first place," said Takashi, standing up. "As for the 'weirdo', he saved our lives. You should thank him."

"Oh fuck you!" Tsunoda growled. "We could have holed up back at the school or something!"

"H-He's right!" a mousy-looking student with shaggy brown hair that covered part of his face agreed.

"We should find someplace to hide, like that convenience store we just passed!"

The impending argument was suddenly cut off when Shizuka suddenly hit the brakes the the bus, bringing the machine to a sudden stop. Everyone lurched from the stop, but only 'Lance' was able to keep his balance easily enough. The usually ditzy blonde undid her seatbelt and got up to look back at the aggravated Tsunoda.

"That's enough!" she cried. "I can't concentrate if you're busy arguing!"

'Lance' decided that it was time to end the argument before someone's temper turned it into a brawl, "Besides, your school was a deathtrap at the time and a convenience store is likely one of the worst places to hide out in a crisis like this."

"Oh yeah?" Tsunoda sneered. "And how would you know that?-!"

'Lance' uncrossed his arms and began to slowly approach the delinquent, "Your school was already overrun with those monsters. There were no safe places left to hide if indeed you decided to run to the bus with other survivors. You could try cleaning them out, but you feel pain, get tired, hungry, sleepy, and thirsty. They likely don't. They'd overwhelm you." He then glanced at the mousy student.

"A convenience store is one of the least defensible locations since by its own nature it's easily accessible. What's more, we'd be fighting both monsters and people since there is going to be a rush of looting and hunting for supplies. We're going to have enough problems in dealing with the dead without having to deal with desperate people at the same time." As he spoke, he walked closer to Tsunoda, his eyes narrowed and this...feeling of intimidation and power coming off of him. The delinquent wasn't sure why, but he felt intimidated and instinctively backed away as 'Lance' got closer.

"He's right," Saeko spoke up, causing Tsunoda turn his gaze to her. "The school was compromised and there are no truly protected locations we can use near us." Her eyes narrowed. "So what would you have us do if you're so sure of a plan?"

"Uh...Guh..." Tsunoda gulped, his nerve weakening under 'Lance's' gaze. Looking about, he started speaking but his brain didn't seem to be working properly. "I...I...I just can't stand _that_ guy!" he pointed out at Takashi with a trembling arm.

"Huh?" Takashi blinked, a frown on his face. "And just what did I do to you? Hell, I don't think I've ever even met you before today."

"Y-YOU!" Tsunoda growled, all logic leaving him at the moment before attempting to charge at Takashi with his fists clenched together.

'Lance' acted quickly, even quicker than Rei had been trying to move when she got up to defend her ex-boyfriend. The knight in casual clothes grabbed Tsunoda by his jacket before throwing him at the back of the bus, the teen's feet clearly leaving the ground with the force.

"Calm down," he spoke neutrally. "You don't have to like one another but this is hardly the time to try and let your tempers rule your minds. We're in this together and we can't afford to let real or imagined grudges cause this cooperation to break apart!"

"Guh...you..." Tsunoda gasped, rubbing his chest. He didn't try to get back up though. Even he could tell when he was beaten.

Sudden clapping brought attention to the back where Shido was standing up, actually applauding the demonstration, "Splendid work Lance-san," he praised. "Expertly handled, but the fact this dispute came up just proves my point. We really do need a leader to help us keep organized."

"Oh?" Saya huffed, adjusting her glasses. "And I suppose there's only one man for the job?"

"Well, I am a teacher and the majority of everyone here is a student," Shido shrugged, leaning on Saya's seat but she refused to meet his gaze. "That alone should mean that I'm more than qualified to be a leader." turning, he faced the other students and gestured to them rather dramatically. "I can more than handle the role and prevent incidents like this from happening." he smiled charmingly.

"What do the rest of you say?

"I wouldn't trust you with an empty gun if my back was turned," the glasses student snarled quietly. Rei glanced at the boy and nodded in agreement. It was a sentiment that was passed through Takashi's group since they all had reasons not to trust the man.

It was a sentiment that the others on the bus didn't seem to share as one by one they began to stand up and begin clapping their agreement like in an election. Shido smiled at their support and bowed theatrically. Turning back to the front of the bus, he smirked, "Well, the majority speaks. That makes me the leader."

'Lance' frowned, but didn't make a scene. Walking straight up to the man, he leaned in close so he could speak without the other students becoming panicked, "I saw what you did at the school to that boy. You do it again, I will take steps to ensure the safety of these children."

"Harsh times such as these force us to make harsh decisions," Shido whispered back, the clapping hiding his voice from the others. It didn't serve to hide the slight fear in his voice since he recalled all too well how the foreign man was capable of destroying _them_ with next to no effort. "We cannot be so generous with people that will only hold us back."

"Then that is where you and I are different," 'Lance' whispered back. "Remember my words." He then turned away from the teacher to head to a seat near Shizuka.

As this happened, Rei's stance became more and more tense before it seemed she had finally had enough to deal with while being in Shido's presence. Gritting her teeth, she dashed to the front of the bus before kicking the door open and leaping out onto the street.

"Rei!" Takashi cried, chasing after his Ex. "Rei, wait!"

"No!" the girl snapped, turning to glare at her ex-boyfriend. "I refuse to be on the same bus or even anywhere near that...that...slimeball! I won't! I can't!"

"Oh dear," Shido sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "If you feel that we cannot truly be a cohesive group, then it may be better for you to leave."

"What the hell's THAT supposed to mean!" Takashi snapped at the man before turning to see Rei walking away. Grimacing, he leaped out of the bus before running up to Rei in front of a nearby tunnel and grabbing her arm. "Rei, I know you don't like-!"

"I told you all that we're going to regret rescuing him and now he's already manipulating everyone into giving him his way!" Rei snapped, taking her arm back from Takashi.

"Rei, we just have to put up with him until we get to the city and then we can ditch his ass!" Takashi argued. "Please, just put up with it until-!"

VROOOOOOOM!

Takashi was cut off when he heard the sounds of a heavy engine nut unlike that of a bus he was just on. Looking up, he saw the headlights of another approaching bus. Unlike the bus he was on though, it was approaching at a ridiculous speed. Almost as if in slow motion in the pair's eyes, the bus hit the back of a car stuck in the road before jackknifing in the air before crashing on its side in a shower of sparks and shrapnel. The speed it was going at though meant it kept coming as it hit the group, speeding towards Rei and Takashi.

"MOVE!" Takashi shouted, grabbing Rei and running for the tunnel in hopes that it would be enough to stop the crashing bus. His guess turned out to be right as he made the final leap into the tunnel, both he and Rei landing on the pavement as the bus crashed into the walls in a fiery explosion.

"Komuro!" Saeko shouted, dashing from the bus. She ran close to the destroyed public bus, but she only dared to get so close before the flames from the resulting crash grew too hot. 'Lance' was not far behind her, his form shimmering to be replaced by the suit of armor that he had charged the school with. He withstood the flames better than Saeko could and was ready to charge into the flames to rescue who he could if he had to...but he didn't have high hopes.

"Komuro!" Saeko shouted over the sounds of the flame, trying to ignore the scent of burning flesh.

"Komuro! Miyamoto!"

A shambling noise captured Rei and Lance's attention before they saw forms beginning to emerge from the burning wreckage. Some crawled out of openings on the top side while others began to crawl out of the broken windshield. Even more stood up in the flames, thrown from the wreckage, but all of them were on fire.

The black knight reacted quickly. Looking around, he spotted a power pole that had been knocked over in the bus' crash. Running to it, he grabbed one of the broken power cables with both hands before pulling it clean from the post. Wrapping one end around his wrist, he allowed his power to flood into it, turning it black and purple. Returning to the scene of the crash where Saeko was backing away, he took the cable and lashed out with it like a whip, striking the closest of the ghouls and breaking a portion of its head with a loud crack, sending it back into its own funeral pyre.

"Busujima!" Takashi's voice called out over the moans and whip-lick cracks. Saeko glanced to the edge of the tunnel and saw Takashi's face through a small gap between it and the wreckage. "The East Police Station! Rei and I will meet you guys there!"

"When?" Saeko called back.

"7PM!" Takeshi called back. "If we're not there by 7PM tomorrow then go on without us!" Any further argument was cut off by collapsing debris from both the tunnel and the bridge, forcing both of the teens to back away.

Moans came from the burning dead, prompting Saeko to raise her weapon and 'Lance' to prepare another attack, but the need simply died as the bodies of the remaining ghouls seemed to have taken too much burning and collapsed where they stood.

"_They cannot withstand fire for long,_" 'Lance' observed, still gripping his weapon. Glancing over to Saeko, he grabbed her shoulder to get her attention. "_We have to go. We can meet with the others later!_"

"Right!" the swordswoman reluctantly agreed. Both ran back to the bus and boarded, Shizuka's concerned gaze eyeing the both of them in hopes of answers of any kind, preferably of the good persuasion.

"We can't keep going this was Shizuka-sensei," Saeko reported.

"Okay. I think I know a different way!" Shizuka nodded, hitting the machine's accelerator and beginning to move the machine onto a new road so they could get around the tunnel.

"_God speed you two,_" 'Lance' prayed softly, hoping that despite the hellish situation God had indeed not abandoned the world.

* * *

Rei and Takashi stood at the mouth of the tunnel, hearing a boom to signaling the gas tank of the bus exploding. Both just watched, not having much presence of mind to do much else after dealing with yet another threat to their lives. Both of them felt a part of themselves beg to be told that they were dealing with a bad dream of some sort, but they both knew that to be untrue. It was starting to get dark as the sky turned orange. For them, the day had started normally enough but then it all just went straight down to Hell. Was it the Apocalypse or something? Was this the end of humanity and civilisation as they knew it?

"Come on," Takashi sighed. "We'd better get mov-HUFF!"

Takashi's sudden expelling of breath came when he was tackled from behind by something. Coming to the ground in a hard slam, he managed to scramble onto his back even with hands grasping at him. His eyes focused on his assailant, finding that it was one of _them_ dressed up in a street-racing outfit with a helmet covering their face, but an open wound on the neck.

"Agh! Dammit!" takashi cursed as he struggled with the zombie. The ghoul in question lunged down at Takashi to bite him, but instead headbutted him because of the helmet covering his face, making the teen see stars.

Shaking them off, Takashi pressed his hands against the monster's face to try and keep it away, the helmet acting as a good protection for him rather than fro the one who was wearing it. The ghoul continued pressing down though, its tireless strength winning out against Takashi's fatigued arms. The teen continued to struggle but his pressing against the helmet caused it to slip, allowing the freak's mouth to began to be seen.

"NGH! GHN! GA!" Takashi grunted in he efforts.

"_Gaahhhhhhhhhh..._" the ghoul moaned, leaning in closer, chomping its teeth.

KRACK!

The noise echoed through the area like a gunshot. The ghoul on top of Takashi suddenly froze before simply slumping over, dead all over again. Takashi panted in shock but was quick to get the cadaver off of him. Looking to its head, he saw that the back of the helmet was cracked with blood leaking out from the gaps. Panting caught his attention and he turned to see Rei with a bloody cinder block in her hands.

Dropping the rock aside, she held a hand to her ex, "Takashi, you okay?"

"...yeah," the teenager finally panted, taking Rei's hand before she helped him to his feet.

Both of them remained silent as they walked up the sort hill to where the main road to the city could be found. Looking in the distance, they saw Tokonosou City proper where their families were and where their friends would be. Smoke could be seen in the distance even in the darkening night sky, meaning that the hell had extended there as well.

"Are we going to walk all the way to the city?" asked Rei.

"Don't have much of a choice," Takashi replied with a sigh, but he then cut himself off as his eyes sharpened. "Wait, this guy was wearing a helmet wasn't he?"

Leaving Rei's side, Takashi began scanning the hillside looking for what he was sure would be there. The guy who just tried to eat him had been wearing a motorcycle helmet which meant that he had to be riding a motorcycle. Given that he he had to have turned a while ago given he still looked relatively clean he must have crashed nearby having become too sick to drive if how Hisashi turned was any indication. Sure enough, partially hidden in the hillside grass was an orange motorcycle which was just begging to be plucked and even had the keys still inside of it.

"All right!" the teen grinned, jumping down the grassy hill to reach the machine. Picking it up and finding it to be lightweight, he wheeled it up onto the road proper. After a moment to figure out the controls and such he turned the key and twisted the accelerator, allowing the machine to roar to life.

"Purrs like a kitten," he sighed in relief.

"Didn't know you had a license," Rei commented, having watched Takashi work.

"License?" Takashi grinned at her. "I'm a high school kid. What do I need a license for?"

Rei smiled slightly before the pair of them mounted the machine. Takashi tested the accelerator and got a feel for it before the pair roared off down the roar. They wobbled for a moment as Takashi got used to the machine and the balance but it wasn't too different from riding a bicycle in his opinion which allowed him to get used to it quickly.

The pair hadn't truly accepted the reality of it yet, but the world as they knew it had already ended and a new reality has set in. One that was nowhere near as pleasant as the one that they had left behind.

* * *

Meanwhile, back on the bus, Lancelot sat near Shizuka but he was also paying attention to what Shido was doing. He frowned at the actions of the man, reminding him too much of the snakes in the political aspects off Camelot. He couldn't stop the man from talking but still he knew what was happening. It was basically the power of a stronger personality imposing itself on a group of weaker personalities. As a teacher, he had higher authority over students and it was his own students he was addressing, a few of them actually gazing at him with mindless admiration. It wouldn't be long before he had total control over them. Still, it wasn't like Lancelot couldn't handle them but they were just children, frightened and scared, who needed reassurance and Shido was providing something for them to have faith in, even if it was a fake idol like himself. Still, it wouldn't be long for fanatical beliefs to spread and then they might force themselves onto the more composed people in the bus. Saya and Kota seemed to be getting along well or at least Kota managed to keep Saya from becoming too hostile and Saeko was calm, but he could tell that she was still concerned about her two schoolmates. Shizuka was at the wheel and trying to be energetic. However, even so, she would need to rest.

He remained in his armor for the time being in case things got hectic once again. Wrapped around his arm was the power cable that he had stolen and turned into an improvised whip. With Knight of Honor, it would make for a fine weapon against any of the ghouls that remained outside. The image may not have been the most pleasant, but many of the students in the front felt a little better knowing that they had a protector keeping an eye out for them while they got some rest.

The children were setting themselves down to try and catch some sleep in the night and Shido it seemed had finished his little sermon on his plans to secure someplace safe for the rest of them. The man had charisma, Lancelot could give him that. A shame he didn't have the courage or the morals to go with it or else he could have made a fine leader.

With most of the passengers save for Lancelot himself and Shizuka nodding off, the knight finally allowed his armor to be dismissed as he took a seat.

"You should get some sleep Lance-kun," Shizuka spoke softly so not to disturb the others. "Today hasn't been pleasant for any of us."

"I'm used to bad days," Lancelot replied, getting comfortable. "My offer to drive while you get some rest is still open." In case of an emergency, he could have used Knight of Honor to turn the whole bus into a Noble Phantasm in which cause it would be capable of taking out pretty much anything that tried to stop it be it one ghoul, a hundred, or whatever else that created them would bring out.

"I'm used to late nights," Shizuka shook her head. "It wasn't too long ago that I graduated from medical school you know. Late nights are practically a prerequisite."

"Indeed. You needed to study hard," Lancelot agreed. "Even so, you will need to rest. Driving for long hours will not be good for you."

"You're so sweet, Lance-kun. You'll always be my knight in shining armor, won't you?" Shizuka beamed at her friend.

"It seems to be something I find myself being good at," Lancelot smiled weakly. He was somewhat amazed that she still hadn't asked him anything about the abilities he possessed such as storming the school in a suit of armor he could make vanish or appear in a heartbeat or about the things he could turn into weapons that for all intents and purposes shouldn't be able to used as weapons at or more than once. Then again, Shizuka was a very trusting and kind soul so perhaps part of her acceptance of him was simply in her nature and the rest was because she knew him. It seemed even in all this hell there was still that innocent spark inside of her.

He would protect that innocence and those of the others for as long as he could.

* * *

**Ten-Faced Paladin: Okay, Okay, I got inspiration for this from a fic called The Custodian. It hasn't been updated in a while so the urge hit me to make my own version. I probably broke more than a few rules of the Nasuverse writing this fic but honestly I can't seem to care all that much. The end of the world via zombie apocalypse warrants special intervention from the beings who govern the Throne of Heroes and the residents within in my opinion.**


	19. The Gold Ashikabi

**I do not own Sekirei or Fate/Stay Night. I am writing this for fun and for no other reason. The only original character I own is Eiyuo Kamiya. If you like this then that's fine by me. If you don't, you can exit this story and go elsewhere. I'm not making you stay.**

**-THE GOLD ASHIKABI-**

**Chapter 1**

Shin-Tokyo was a sprawling metropolis which held the headquarters of the mysterious Mid Bio Informatics or MBI for short. With their technology spanning into just about every possible field from medical to mundane, the economy had received a massive boost. Buildings were clean, health issues had been resolved, and employment for the most part was up.

For the most part…

Inside a dingy alleyway sat one of the few homeless that the city pretended didn't exist. He was a teenage fellow wearing a dirty brown jacket with a stained yellow sweater and jeans. A hood was covering his head and a plain dark scarf most of his features but his hair was revealed to be a dirty blonde and his eyes were an odd shade of brown, almost red. He was dirty and downtrodden, which was somewhat to be expected considering his condition. He simply sat on the ground, seemingly ignoring both the chill in the air and the people walking around the sidewalks outside of the alley.

His name was Eiyūō Kamiya.

Eiyūō hadn't come to where he was out of circumstance, but out of choice. He used to live in a nice home with a nice family out in Fuyuki City. However, one night there was a black wave of darkness out at the Ryuudo Shrine and it left Eiyūō…changed. At first Eiyūō didn't know that this change had occurred. Not until one of the local tough guys decided to try and extort some cash from him at knifepoint. That was when his…change came up and turned the man into a pile of mush. He tried to convince himself that it was a bad dream, but when it happened two more times when the tough's friends tried to get payback for their friend. Two more people turned into piles of mush by his…change.

Eiyūō couldn't deny it any longer. What had occurred to him made him extremely dangerous and he couldn't control it! So far it took out three people and who could guess that something else would make it go off again. Worse, what if it went off where there were dozens of people present?-!

Knowing that nobody was safe around him, Eiyūō ran away from home. He kept himself isolated and alone to prevent the…change from hurting anybody. Unfortunately, now and then people would try to get near him for good and for ill and someone would get turned into ground hamburger. They were always guys who wanted to hurt Eiyūō, but what triggered the change could be more than just self-preservation and Eiyūō didn't want to risk finding out what. So the dirty blonde boy kept on moving, avoiding everyone so that his…change wouldn't trigger and kill somebody. He eventually came to Shin-Tokyo, the city which was formerly known as Tokyo before MBI set up headquarters and revolutionized the city. On paper and maps it was still called Tokyo, but everyone else called it by its new nickname. Eiyūō thought that with the numerous alleys and abandoned buildings here and there he'd likely never be pegged beyond a vagrancy charge or something.

"Hey you!"

Speaking of which…

Eiyūō looked up bleakly, revealing bags under his eyes. A result of his sleepless nights on account of nightmares of the people he had accidentally killed over the year since he had run away from Fuyuki. Looking to the source, he saw a police officer stomping towards him. He seemed like a slightly round fellow with grizzle on his face. Likely he was one of those barely adequate cops who were assigned to the low-level positions so not to cause trouble. Of course, it always left them in a bad mood which they'd take out on whoever was unlucky enough to get in their way.

Unfortunately, that counted for Eiyūō at the moment.

"You scum, dirtying up the streets," the officer growled as he stomped over to Eiyūō and grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt. Forcing the teen to his feet, he eyed the blonde like he was looking at dog crap on the sidewalk which he was forced to clean up. "When are you freaks going to get the message and go get jobs or something? Stop fouling up our streets!"

Eiyūō said nothing. He wouldn't try to justify himself to the cop since he chose this kind of life. Besides, trying to talk would usually get the guys like this cop mad and would maybe smack him around or something with the false pretence of resisting arrest. However, the cop's face started to turn red in anger as he took Eiyūō's compliant silence as some kind of insulting arrogance.

"Punk!" the cop growled, tossing Eiyūō closer to the opposite end of the alley which broke into four corners between four buildings. The blonde boy crashed into some garbage cans which were left out by the owners. Scrambling out of the filth, Eiyūō dazedly got into his feet. His sleep deprivation from the previous night was making his reflexes sluggish and unreliable. Perfect timing.

"You caught me on the wrong day," the cop growled as he massaged his fist, approaching the stunned teen. "Superior demoted me for letting off a buddy of mine on a speeding ticket and landed me here. I need some stress relief."

'_Oh crap,_' Eiyūō groaned mentally.

The officer began to approach with a snicker on his lips and the golden-haired boy began to feel fear seep into his body. It was like electric surges running through him and…

…oh no

"Run…" Eiyūō whispered, horror tainting his voice. "Gotta…run!"

"Oh, there's no running from you punk," the cop laughed. "Otherwise I could get you for fleeing an officer."

"No," Eiyūō choked, feeling like circuits of fire were coursing through him, growing hotter and hotter and more power flooded them. "You have to run!"

"Ha! Like I'd run from a homeless punk!" the cop laughed, continuing to approach.

"NOOOOO!" Eiyūō cried, pleading for the cop to leave. "RUUUUUN!"

*WHOOM!*

A pulse of power erupted from Eiyūō's body while a beam of light rose above him. It flickered before spreading into a golden wall of light which sparkled and shone like a star brought to earth. Which the sparkling wall, bulges appeared before each one slowly revealed what looked to be an ornate weapon which seemed to exude some kind of pressure just from their presence. Swords, scythes, hammers, daggers, staffs, spears, axes, all of them revealed themselves from the glowing wall with their deadly tips aimed at the cop.

"What the-!" the cop paled, staring at the wall of death.

"RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!" Eiyūō screamed.

It was too late…

The weapons were fired with the force of bullets from their holding place. They cut through the air with lethal intensity before colliding with the cop with just as much force. They cut through his body like hot knives through butter. The blades cut through flesh, bone, and organs like they were nothing. Mercifully, the cop died when a red barbed spear had pierced his heart before the others collided but it didn't stop more from shooting out. For a deadly few seconds, weapons rained down on the spot where the man stood, cratering the ground or walls when they missed and utterly destroying what flesh they hit.

"STOP!" Eiyūō screamed, clutching his head. "STOP! STOP IT! STOOOOOOOOOOOP!"

The fiery circuit feeling in his body died, leaving him feeling empty and exhausted. The wall of light began to die down as the weapons yet to be launched were drawn back into it. The weapons already sticking out of the ground dissolved into gold dust which was sucked back into the golden light before it vanished altogether.

What it left behind wasn't a pleasant sight.

The area where the cop stood was cratered and broken in several places with no single section remaining untouched. The cop himself was a giant red splatter with meat steaming and quivering underneath the shreds of a uniform. It would be difficult to tell who the man was and without the swords, it would be hard to believe he died of anything less than being thrown into a woodchipper. "Oh God," Eiyūō moaned, his eyes wide and unblinking at the sight. It happened again! He'd killed someone again!

A flapping of fabric caused him to look up at a building where he spotted a strange figure standing on the top and staring down at him with wide eyes. He was dressed entirely in black with a long coat and a black mask covering the rest of his face. He could have been handsome if the mask wasn't in the way, but what was most shocking about him was that his hair was pure white despite obviously being a man in his prime.

Eiyūō felt the blood drain from his face. Someone had seen him! Panicking, he dashed away both from the strangely dressed man and the scene of the murder. He prayed that no one would call the police before he could get a change of clothes for himself. The white-haired man hadn't seen his face so he lucked out. A quick change of clothes and he'd be set to hide in plain sight.

Now he just had to find some clothes.

* * *

"What…was that?"

Homura gaped with open shock at what he had just witnessed. He had been doing patrols and looking out for his fellow Sekirei who had yet received their wings as was his personal duty to them when he heard a scuffle in an alley. Fearing that one of the birds was being attacked by an unscrupulous Ashikabi or some punk who wanted to be one. He came upon the sight of a cop harassing what looked like a homeless teenage boy. Homura was suspicious of the scene since most Sekirei were essentially homeless until their found their Ashikabi. It was standard for all of them to receive an MBI card to fund their search but some of them would jump the gun and break out before they could receive that card and end up hungry on the street. With how much a Sekirei needed to eat, that was a pretty bad thing. Homura suspected that the homeless boy was one such example.

His fears were confirmed when the boy brought up that gold light, but then when the swords appeared and fired…the fire-user had seen many disturbing things in his life but what happened to the cop who became little more than ground hamburger was by far the worst. He first thought that he was seeing one of the more ruthless of his kind, but then recalled the look of absolute horror on what little of boy's face he could see and how he pleaded for the cop to run.

The boy couldn't control his power, likely meaning he was a Scrapped Number. How he got out was a complete mystery since MBI kept the Scrapped Numbers under very tight security. Still, he had been stunned enough by the sight for the boy to get away into the crowds before Homura could try to get some kind of identity on him.

Looking away from the ground paste of the former officer, Homura reached for his cell phone to call up Takami to see if there was any way they could cover up this incident. As much as he hated the Sekirei Plan, he could appreciate how it managed to keep its secrets.

* * *

The sun had set and Eiyūō had taken shelter inside one of the parks that Shin-Tokyo sported. It took some doing, but he managed to spot a department store that was unloading stock. While the workers were off having lunch, Eiyūō stole a red sweater, denim jacket, and black jeans. He ditched his old outfit in a wastebasket and headed off, trying not to look suspicious. He didn't attract police attention, but some of the local girls giggled as they walked by him. Without his hood or scarf, Eiyūō was revealed to have fair features which once he matured enough, might earn him the title of bishounen if he managed to take better care of himself. His hair, though a bit greasy from lack of washing seemed to naturally look good despite it's condition. No one would suspect that he was homeless unless they looked at his dirty hands.

With night approaching, Eiyūō decided to tough out the night in the park and see what he could do to find a place to sleep for the night. Finding a small grove of trees seemed good enough for the time being. As he moved to remove his jacket, a slow mist began to creep into the park.

"Perfect," Eiyūō groaned, eyeing the mist distastefully. "So much for keeping warm tonight."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that."

"We have the perfect solution for you."

"Mikogami-sama will be happy to give you a warm room in return for your loyalty."

Eiyūō blinked and turned towards the source of the three female voices. Out of mist came three very shapely females who for some reason seemed to feel…different to Eiyūō's eyes. Of course, he wouldn't deny that the three of them were very pretty and very…developed.

The first was a blonde woman who had her hair split into two ponytails. She was wearing white gloves and a one piece dress which clung to her figure tightly. It was black on the sides with a yellow stripe down the middle which matched her black boots which went up to her thighs. The girl next to her was dressed in the exact same way and looked like her in down to the hairstyle, making Eiyūō believe that the pair were twins.

The woman behind them seemed to be a bit more mature in terms of figure. She was dressed in a white jacket which was opened on the front and left a lot of her cleavage exposed along with down to her stomach. She thankfully wore a white skirt with black straps around her hips. Her hair was a striking shade of gray which ran down past her hips and her face was pretty, if not a little intense.

"Uh…" Eiyūō blinked, stunned slightly by the trio's looks. Beautiful women never wanted to talk to a homeless vagrant after all so it had been a while since he had true female contact. "Wh-who are you three."

"Number 65: Taki," the gray-haired woman introduced.

"Number 38: Mitsuha," said the twin on the right.

"Number 39: Mitsuki," the twin on the left smiled. "Care to tell us who you are?"

"Um…" Eiyūō blinked, speaking out of reflex on account of his manners. "Eiyūō Kamiya."

"A last name?" snickered Mitsuha. "That's cute! Okay, so what's your number?"

"Number?" the blonde boy blinked. Were they trying to hit on him? "I…don't have a cell phone."

This seemed to get Mitsuki mad, "No you dolt! Your Sekirei Number! What is it?"

Eiyūō blinked in further confusion. What the hell were these people talking about now? "Sekirei? As in a wagtail? Do I look like a kind of bird to you?"

"I think we have a stubborn one," Taki commented. "Oh dear."

"I like the stubborn ones!" Mitsuha laughed. Suddenly lashing out with her hand, a black whip launched out and quickly ended up wrapped around Eiyūō tighter than anything else he had felt in his life. "Ha! Got him!"

"Hey!" Eiyūō cried, tugging against the whip bindings, but feeling like he was wrapped in cast iron. "Let me go!"

"Kind of hard to believe this guy killed a cop," Mitsuki shrugged. "Oh well, another Sekirei is another Sekirei," she looked at Eiyūō with a smug smirk. "Don't worry, one kiss and it'll all be over. Mikogami-sama will get us to the end."

Eiyūō continued to struggle against his bindings as the twins laughed while the gray-haired woman watched on in resignation. The blonde boy struggled and pulled, but the whip was wrapped tight and Mitsuki's strength didn't let him get any kind of leeway. Just what the hell were they talking about? One kiss? End of what? Were they talking about some kind of forced slave ring or something?

"Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" Eiyūō struggled against the bonds. He pulled and tugged some more, but the twins' smirks only said they found it amusing rather than any kind of challenge. Feeling his anger boiling, Eiyūō reached his peak in patience, "I SAID LET ME GOOOOOOOOO!"

*WHOOM*

The golden light of his power erupted again from just behind him and the points of all of his weapons emerged from wherever it was that they came from. Swords, spears, axes, the works all pointed down at the trio of strange women who could not possibly be regular humans.

"Ah!" Taki gasped.

"What the-?-!" Mitsuki cried.

"Holy shit!" Mitsuha gaped.

The trio didn't have time to recover before the weapons began shooting at them at high speeds. The twins reacted instantly to the threat. Mitsuha yanked back her whip and began lashing out wildly, knocking the weapons out of the air. Mitsuki uncoiled lengths of string from somewhere and coiled them together into ropes to help her sister. Each weapon they struck flew wildly through the air, crashing into the ground or getting stuck in a tree somewhere. Eiyūō was finding himself too angry to care, his mind addled by sleep deprivation and lack of food only weakened his reasoning. All he wanted to do was make the trio GO AWAY!

*SLINK!*

"Ow!" Mitsuha grimaced as a sword slipped past her guard and nicked her shoulder.

*SLINK*

"Ack!" Mitsuki growled as a spear cut her hip, slicing through her dress.

Taki remained behind the girls, looking quite afraid and nowhere near as confident. She was a support-type, not an outright combatant! They were told that this Sekirei had a kind of storage pocket of some kind, but nothing like this! They knew he was violent which was why Mitsuki and Mitsuha were chosen to find him, but this was too much! Where had he gotten all these weapons from?-!

Mitsuki and Mitsuha were good, but it was obvious that their bodies were getting tired. Nicks and scratches from the blades which missed them were becoming more and more frequent as they missed more and more blades. Sooner or later, they were going to miss and get sliced to ribbons! They had to pull out!

From above Eiyūō, another dagger appeared ready to be launched at the three women who had become a threat to him. This one was of course ornate and held some kind of presence like the others. It had a short handled and an odd blade which was purple in a zig-zag patter before ending at the tip. The handle was wrapped in leather but the hilt was brown with gold decoration. Among all of the weapons fired thus far, this dagger was unique in a way Eiyūō had no comprehension of.

Rule Breaker, the blade in which All Spells Must Be Broken.

Coming to position, it was immediately launched at the trio of women, aimed to kill them if it could. Like the other blades, it cut through the air at the targets. Despite how unique it was, Mitsuki and Mitsuha didn't really take the time to admire it with so many other blades they had to block. It missed Mitsuha's whip and continued flying before managing to avoid Mitsuki's coiled strings. Both obstacles avoided, it continued flying and came right between the twins who were so busy trying to protect themselves from the onslaught of blades. They hadn't even noticed it go by since it didn't cut them like the others. Unfortunately, Taki did see the blade coming and her eyes widened in fear at the dagger which was coming. She tried to move, tried to scream but it did her no avail. Rule Breaker zoomed in at her and struck her dead centre between her collarbone and breasts.

The effect was instant as she unleashed a scream which echoed through the night. It was enough to snap Eiyūō out of his rage and make his ability stop shooting the blades. Mitsuki and Mitsuha both stopped and turned to see what was happening to their comrade. From Taki's back, a weird symbol which looked like a bird with its wing raised up with a tao symbol beneath it with magatama markings on either side rose from between her shoulder blades. The marking shone brightly with wings of what looked like fog or mist unfurling from it. However, the marking then flickered before going out completely and the wings faded into nothingness. The light show gone, Rule Breaker fell from where it struck Taki, leaving only a small scratch before the woman herself fell to the ground as if her strings were cut.

Mitsuki and Mitsuha turned back to gape at Eiyūō with the golden light still behind him along with even more blades pointed in their direction. His eyes were wide, his face pale, and he was breathing so fast it looked like he was about to have a panic attack. Still, the twins' eyes were more on the weapons rather than the person holding them.

In a silent mutual decision, both girls leaped away and vanished into the fading mist, leaving their comrade to rot on the ground.

"Oh god…" Eiyūō gasped. Again! Again! Again! Again! It happened again! The swords vanished back to where they belonged like always as the burning in his body likewise disappeared, taking the gold light with it.

"Please be okay! Please be okay! Please be okay!" the boy begged as he dashed to the downed woman's side. Yes, they were bitches and wanted to kidnap him but he didn't want to kill them! Kneeling at the woman's side, he lifted her up slightly to examine her. The only mark on her was the slight puncture wound the twisted dagger had left her, but obviously it had done more than that! Eiyūō shook her, but she wouldn't wake. So he set her down and pressed his ear to her chest, ignoring her large breasts as he tried to listen.

…_badump…badump…badump.._

A heartbeat. A strong one.

Eiyūō choked back a grateful sob. He hadn't killed someone! For the first time his curse hadn't ended someone's life when it activated! Shifting back from Taki, he admired how she was completely safe from his curse with only a small cut to show for it. Clutching his face, he sobbed in happiness, so desperately relieved that he managed to avoid killing someone for once. Thoughts about the vanishing mark or the wings of mist didn't factor into his mind as he simply enjoyed the sensation of finally having his curse fail to kill someone.

As Eiyūō sobbed over the good fortune, seeing it as a small beacon of hope for his future, Taki slowly returned to consciousness. Groaning softly, she rubbed her head to nurse a somewhat bad headache. She remembered the other Sekirei and those terrifying flying weapons of his. She touched her chest and felt the light puncture wound which had already scabbed over. It wasn't very deep, but would sting for a while. Still, that was only secondary in her mind at the moment. What was first and foremost to her was the fact that her bond to Mikogami had been severed. She couldn't feel the spoiled and rather dark boy anymore.

"What…happened to me?" she whispered to herself. Reaching to between her shoulder blades underneath her clothes, she didn't find the telltale ridges which would say she had been winged. If her crest was gone, she should have been rendered inactive and brought back to the labs at MBI. How was she still functional?

Looking to the side, she spotted the Sekirei she and the twins were supposed to capture for their Ashikabi. He was crying quite audibly and seemed completely unaware of his surroundings. Mikogami's agents, paid spies who were keeping an eye out for any Sekirei which looked unwinged did mention this. He seemed somewhat out of control with his abilities and possibly only needed to be winged to fix them. However, no one suspected that they were this out of control. Perhaps it was the reason he hadn't been winged yet?

For a moment, she sat and watched him cry before her gentler instincts, ones that she had to put on hold for the sake of staying out of trouble with Mikogami came up once again. Getting onto her knees, she shuffled towards him to see if he would allow her to comfort him. She had no loyalty to Mikogami anymore and since she hadn't been shut down maybe she could find…her…Ashikabi…?

What was that nice smell?

Shuffling closer to the crying boy and feeling a little flushed all of a sudden, she reached out and touched his shoulder. He jerked up immediately, looking at her with tears running down his face. He stiffened at the sight of her, looking like he was torn between wanting to run from her or to see if she was okay.

"Are you…okay?" she asked. Was it getting warm all of a sudden?

Eiyūō choked back a sob again before he lunged at the woman, his mind a whirlwind of emotion and pain before wrapping his arms around her continuing to cry, "I'm sorry! I didn't want to hurt you! I just wanted to make you go away!" Normally it wouldn't be seen as intelligent by any means to hug a woman who tried to kidnap you, but Eiyūō was in anything but a proper state of mind at the moment and his relief in seeing someone he could have killed alive and well just made him want to hug her and be assured that she was real and not a ghost out to haunt him.

"EEP!" Taki gasped, her internal temperature spiking as she felt the close proximity to the boy make her world turn rosy. Her face lit up like a light and her breathing came out in short gasps. The boy continued to sob into her shoulder, apologizing profusely for almost killing her, begging her to forgive him. He was obviously distraught and his mental processes likely weren't firing on all cylinders if he was hugging a woman who had come to kidnap him.

'_So warm…_' she dazedly thought to herself. All those swords…no one would be able to touch this boy if he managed to master that skill. She could picture a ring of protective steel around him…keeping him safe…with her at his side…both of them would be safe…and together…

WAIT!

Taki's eyes snapped open as her clouded mind came to a conclusion. She knew this feeling! It had been taught to her since she was little! But…how could this be happening to her when she was with this boy? He was a Sekirei too…right?

Eiyūō pulled back from the stunned Taki and wiped his eyes. He looked so alone and miserable the Sekirei of the Mist wanted to cry as well. Her logical mind tried to work through what was going on, telling her that she had to be looking at another Sekirei since there was no way humans had such an ability to launch weapons out of a pocket dimension. On the other hand, her Sekirei instincts were yelling at her to do something about his tears. He was in PAIN! He was HURTING! He needed COMFORT! She was the one who could HELP! KISS HIM! HUG HIM! HOLD HIM! TAKE HIS PAIN AWAY! LOVE HIM!

Needless to say, biology won out.

Taki scrambled closer and wrapped her arms around Eiyūō, pulling him close to her body so that there was practically an airtight seal made between their bodily contact. Secured in her arms, she moved her head slightly and captured his lips in a heated kiss. From her back, the bird marking reappeared in a flourish of white as wings made of mist stretched out from the center; giving Taki a somewhat angelic look, not that Eiyūō was in any state of mind to appreciate it. For Taki a rush of pleasure ran through her body which made the winging feel so incredibly special rather than a cold mockery like when Mutsu managed to pin her down for Mikogami.

Eventually the light died down and Taki pulled back with a satisfied sigh and smile. Beaming at the stunned Eiyūō, she whispered to him, "And now we are united, forever and ever."

Eiyūō couldn't find it in himself to speak.

* * *

**Mikogami Estate**

Mitsuki and Mitsuha reported back to their home where their Ashikabi lived and quickly told him what had happened. They were inside one of the living rooms and were sitting across from a fifteen-year old boy with brown hair and average build wearing a white formal outfit. Next to him was an older male who was dressed in black with a yellow scarf around his neck. He had narrow eyes of someone who was constantly strategizing andhad brown hair which was so pale it could have been mistaken for gray. The boy was Hayato Mikogami A.K.A. the Ashikabi of the South while beside him was Number 05: Mutsu.

"Wow, so we lost Taki," Mikogami blinked, listening to his two Sekirei's report. However, rather than someone who lost what could be counted as a life partner, Mikogami merely acted as if he had lost a preferred plaything which in honesty could be replaced. "That sucks."

Mutsu frowned as he heard about this new Sekirei's abilities. Mikogami's contacts through the city reported the incident to him since the boy couldn't be bothered with such things. He had thought that he was inexperienced with his powers he'd be an easy catch, but instead it seemed his powers activated with his emotions and now it had cost them Taki who was an invaluable support-type with her ability to control fog. It would make keeping activities secret more difficult.

"Did you get this Sekirei's name?" asked Mutsu.

"Called himself Eiyūō Kamiya," Mitsuki replied. "The stuck-up jerk wouldn't even give us his number."

"Said he didn't have a phone," Mitsuha grumbled. "As if we would fall for a lie like that."

"So he's likely a Scrapped Number," Mutsu nodded.

"Like Akitsu?" wondered Mikogami, reaching into his pocket for some bubblegum.

"Yes. He likely broke out of the labs like she did," Mutsu nodded. "However, it seems he cannot control his abilities as well as she can but well enough that they can activate when he needs them. He just has difficulty turning them off."

"Didn't have any trouble with that when he fought us," Mitsuha mumbled, rubbing one of the scratches she suffered. "More like he had trouble keeping it on. When he took down Taki he got distracted and the attack stopped."

"So control issues in both ways then," Mutsu nodded. "Still, with as powerful as he is then if we want a chance we'll have to use Akitsu. Fighting a Scrapped Number with a Scrapped Number is the only chance we'll have of collecting this Sekirei."

"Cool," Mikogami grinned, popping his gum into his mouth. "I can't wait! Those other Ashikabi won't know what hit them once I break out this guy!"

* * *

**MBI Headquarters**

One of the lab technicians who was on duty sipped his coffee as he looked at the lists of the Sekirei, checking to see who was winged, unwinged, or out of commission that night. Reading through the 60's, he spotted Number 65 suddenly shift from 'winged' to 'unwinged' in a single blink. Confused, he brought up her profile to see what the problem might be. A Sekirei didn't become unwinged after they were winged, but deactivated. Reading through Taki's profile, he frowned as the data of her Ashikabi Hayato Mikogami was erased. Before he could pull up the data streams to try and figure out what the problem was, Number 65's profile made a chiming noise, alerting him to her change of status.

_Number: 65_

_Name: Taki_

_Type: Support/Elemental_

_Specialty: Mist_

_Ashikabi: Eiyūō Kamiya_

What followed was all of the data needed to contact Eiyūō Kamiya like with all of the other Ashikabi. However, there was a notice saying that according to the police, Eiyuo Kamiya was a missing person. The technician frowned as he read down the information. The CEO was going to have to know about this so they could be told how to proceed.

* * *

**Shin-Tokyo Park**

"Uh…wha…" Eiyūō gaped as he stared at the gray-haired woman who had quite brazenly hugged him close to her body and kissed him. It more or less fried his brain at the point of contact and now he was struggling to put the pieces back together.

"I'm sorry about all of the distress I helped cause you before," Taki apologized, shuffling back slightly while taking hold of the blonde's hands. "However, I was under orders from my previous Ashikabi to claim you since we thought you were a Sekirei like us. Now I know for sure that you are not. Another Sekirei wouldn't have made me react like I did."

"I…uh…" Eiyūō continued to fumble with his words. Taki giggled at his cute confusion. Granted, everything that happened must have come as quite a shock. She would need to get him someplace comfortable where they could give him some time and a little bit of space so he could come to terms with what happened before she explained herself.

Standing up, she gently tugged Eiyūō who was still looking at her in desperate relief and more than a little confusion. Smiling gently, Taki merely said, "I will explain everything later," before leading him by the hand towards the direction of where the nice hotels and such places were located. Luckily she always carried her MBI card on her in case she needed to buy extra clothes or something after a tough fight in which they got shredded by an opponent. Since reports from Mikogami's contacts said he was dressed dirty and grungy, it meant he was likely homeless. That meant it would be up to her to find a place to stay. She didn't mind. For her true Ashikabi, the one who rescued her from Mikogami, a nice place to stay was the least that she could give him.

The pair walked through the streets, Eiyūō being so emotionally drained and confused he simply decided to go with the flow of events and see what would happen. Taki smiling reassuringly at him every few minutes to let him know that everything was okay and that nothing bad was going to happen helped keep him calm. The pair entered he lobby of a very nice hotel which Taki felt would be a very welcome change for her Ashikabi before making the arrangements for a honeymoon suite. The clerk quite blatantly ogled her before he glanced at Eiyūō enviously as if he were the luckiest bum on the planet before he handed over the keys to the room. Smiling her thanks, she took Eiyūō's hand and walked him to the elevator. Stepping inside, they began their ascent to the top floor.

"Why are you doing this?" the blonde boy asked weakly, the curiosity finally becoming too much for him. "I could have killed you back there. I almost did too. I'm amazed you only got off with a scratch. Everyone else this curse of mine activated against ended up being chopped meat."

"Well, I can't say I didn't deserve it since me and the twins were trying to kidnap you," Taki sighed sadly. "As for why I'm doing this? Simple. You're my Ashikabi now. My true Ashikabi," she smiled gently at him. "You freed me from my previous false master and allowed me to bond with you just as a proper Sekirei should. It's my duty and pleasure to ensure your happiness and this is the first step I know to take."

Eiyūō blinked at his former attempted kidnapper turned caregiver. Did he do something to her when she kissed him and that light show appeared or was it when that one dagger managed to strike her in the chest? There was no way that she could have normally wanted to be so helpful to a guy who could have turned her into hamburger like he had done so many people before.

"I know you're confused right now," Taki nodded. "But I will explain everything once we're at our room."

"…right."

Silence ruled the elevator once again.

* * *

**Rooftop — Shin-Tokyo**

Homura stood on top of one of the many rooftops within the city. Since the demonstration he got from that Scrapped Number, he had been looking for any sign of him that may pop up. Considering his abilities, he had to be stopped lest he accidently kill someone again. During his search, his cell phone had gone off and he quickly answered it hoping it was from Takami.

"Wait, you mean there isn't a Sekirei that can make swords?" the fire user blinked in shock.

"_That's what I said,_" the voice of Takami Sahashi, the head geneticist of MBI and his source for all of the Sekirei who had been released replied. "_There is no record of a male Sekirei who has the ability to shoot swords out of a glowing wall. Are you sure you saw what you said you saw?_"

"Dead sure," Homura nodded. "I reported the incident to you. Haven't you guys found the body of that police officer?"

"…_yes,_" the woman's voice replied, sounding a bit weaker. "_I'll admit something turned him into hamburger but it definitely wasn't one of the Sekirei. Whatever this guy is, he isn't one of ours._"

"Tsk!" Homura hissed. This was not good. Just what the heck was this guy? "So there's nothing odd going on with the department?"

"_Well, one of the overseers of the Sekirei came to the top brass with something odd,_" the geneticist replied, a frown in her voice. "_A while ago Number 65: Taki had suddenly become unwinged. She didn't shut down, but all of the data about her Ashikabi was erased. A minute later, she became winged again with a different Ashikabi._"

"What? Re-winged?" Homura blinked. "That's impossible!"

"_So is the ability of hurtling numerous amounts of weapons out of a wall of light for non-Sekirei yet you say you saw it,_" Takami retorted. A flicking sound came from her end of the line, indicating that she was lighting up a cigarette. "_The guy's name is_ _Eiyūō Kamiya. His data records him as a missing person so he has no fixed address. He might be that homeless kid you saw._"

Homura nodded, easily seeing the connection Takami was talking about, "Maybe. Do you know where he is?"

"_Taki's MBI card was used a few minutes ago to purchase a honeymoon suite at a classy hotel,_" Takami answered. "_I'll text you the address. Chances are the two of them are there. If he is this sword kid, then there's something going on we don't know about. It might very well change things considering he can re-wing Sekirei._"

"Right," Homura nodded. "Don't let that lunatic find out though. You know how dedicated he is to his sick little game."

"_Don't I know it,_" Takami groaned, giving off a long-suffering sigh. "_Likely he'll consider doing something about it for a day or so but if this kid keeps off the radar he'll likely get bored and go on about something else. He always does._"

"Just try to help me keep this quiet then," Homura nodded. "Thanks for the info."

"_I'll text you the rest,_" Takami answered. "_Take care._"

"I will," Homura nodded. Taking his phone away from his ear, he ended the call and began waiting for the address of the hotel where he could find his answers.

* * *

**Hotel**

Taki and Eiyūō entered the hotel room and the female Sekirei found it to be quite appropriate for their needs. It was a massive room which had a lot of tasteful decoration and even a kitchen nearby. Of course, being a honeymoon suite there was only one bed which was meant for two. Of course Taki planned it that way. The bathroom was likewise elaborate from what bits of it she could see from just stepping into the room and that was certainly a nice touch. So far, the room looked like it would have everything she would need to help calm and comfort her true Ashikabi.

Eiyūō could only gape at the incredibly fancy and no doubt expensive room which Taki had gotten for the two of them. He had never been inside such a fancy hotel before and for the past year even normal hotels were beyond him. Being inside likely one of the more expensive hotels in all of Shin-Tokyo was like something out of a pipe dream.

"This will do nicely," Taki smiled as she gently brought Eiyūō into the room, letting the door shut behind them. Bringing him to the sofas, she gestured him to sit. He did, and she immediately sat next to him, but still able to face him. "Now, I'm sure that you have many questions about what happened tonight. I will explain what I know as best as I can."

"Okay…" Eiyūō nodded. "So…why did you and those two others try to kidnap me? Why are you being so…loving now?"

"Well, the reason we tried to capture you is because we thought you were a Sekirei like us," Taki explained, looking a little ashamed of her actions. "We were told of what happened with that police officer incident and figured you were a Sekirei. My old Ashikabi wanted you on his side and sent us to capture you so he could wing you."

"You guys called me a Sekirei before," Eiyūō commented. "I know it means wagtail, but what does it mean for you?"

"Well, a Sekirei is one of the 108 beings who have been released into Shin-Tokyo by MBI for the sake of the Sekirei Plan," Taki explained. "Each of us hold a special ability that makes us unique from all of the others. For example," she gestured to herself. "I am able to control mist. I was using it to hide our presence from any onlookers while Mitsuki and Mitsuha were to capture you."

"So, you're some kind of meta-humans who are participating in some kind of plan set up by MBI?" Eiyūō frowned. "Why?"

"We don't really have a choice," Taki sighed. "MBI found our ship and saved us all. It was the CEO who developed the Sekirei Plan for the purpose of what he calls 'ascension' although what that means is anyone's guess."

"And that Ashikabi bit?" Eiyūō pressed.

"An Ashikabi is the destined partner of each Sekirei," Taki explained, her smile widening. "You see, each Sekirei seeks out their destined partner to unlock their full abilities as well as bond with a certain human before they can take part in the Sekirei Plan."

"So you had an…Ashikabi before me?" asked the blonde boy.

"I did…but he wasn't my true Ashikabi," Taki explained. "Some people try forcing Sekirei to bond with them and in my case it happened. Fortunately, whatever you did to me severed that bond and allowed me to react to you as my true Ashikabi!" the gray-haired woman finished with a bright smile that made Eiyūō flush under its light.

"So it means I'm your new partner for the Sekirei Plan?" asked Eiyūō.

"Yes. My partner, my confidant, my mate," Taki flushed slightly. "My husband."

Eiyūō's eyes bulged at the confession. She wanted to be his wife? Okay, that was something he was not expecting? She wanted to be around him, couldn't she tell that he was dangerous?-! Beginning to breathe hard, feeling panic and fear for this beautiful girl setting in, Eiyūō stood up and stepped back. Taki looked on in concern as she saw the panic setting over her Ashikabi's face.

"Eiyūō-sama?" she asked in concern.

"No. No, no, no, no, no," he repeated over an over. "No, you don't want me as an Ashikabi. I'm the absolute worst choice for a partner. I'm too dangerous."

Taki felt a sting at her heart. Was he rejecting her? He wouldn't! She needed him and she could tell that he needed her too! "But Eiyūō-sama!"

"Look at me!" the blonde boy cried, gesturing to himself. "I'm a homeless bum! I'm worthless! I'm just some kid off the street. I'm the last guy who should be picked for something like this!"

"You are not worthless!" Taki insisted, standing up with a huff. "You're just in a bad situation! I will do everything I can to help you in your time of need! I can take care of all your needs while you get back onto your feet and into a proper home," she stepped closer, looking imploringly at Eiyūō. "That's what I'm here for now. You don't have to struggle alone anymore."

Her words were like a siren's call to Eiyūō who had been alone for a very long time now. Someone who wanted to ease his pain was such a grand temptation. The fact that it came from a beautiful woman like Taki just made it all the more irresistible. Eiyūō hated to be alone, being on the outside looking in on all of the people around him who were carefree and didn't have to worry about killing people who so much as pointed a pocket knife in his direction. But he had to keep people away because he didn't know how his curse kept activating, kept going off. Someone could only pretend to try and scare him before setting it off and getting skewered like a stuck pig.

"I'm too dangerous," Eiyūō argued weakly. "You saw what I did. I can't control it! I don't know why it keeps going off except when someone goes after me! All it takes is one bad look and sets off my…my…curse and people get turned to hamburger! You're not safe around me!"

"I think I am," Taki retorted, walking closer to Eiyūō without pause or fear. "I don't think I could be anywhere safer." She reached the blonde boy and captured him in the warmest, tightest hug she could muster. "I will never hurt you, never make you sad, never make you feel lonely. I just know you'd never be able to hurt me now that we're together."

Eiyūō's eyes were wide and his pupils dilated. Stress, emotional trauma, lack of sleep, nightmares, lack of food, and now a beacon of hope before him was just making it all too much to bear. Once again, he began to cry and clutch onto his Sekirei and self-proclaimed wife.

"Everything will be better now," Taki smiled, hugging her new love close. Eiyūō's cries ran down as he managed to get his fragile control back. Taki released him and stepped back with a smile still on her face, "Now please do not be offended Eiyūō-sama, but you need a bath. You're a little stinky." The blonde boy snorted, agreeing with his Sekirei. He knew some of the downsides of living like he did.

"I…guess I do need one," Eiyūō laughed. "It would feel nice to have one again."

"Good," Taki nodded. "I'll order room service. I'm sure we could both use something to eat. You seem to need it since you look so skinny. Leave everything to me."

* * *

**Izumo House**

Within the confines of her hidden room, Number 02: Matsu was hard at work on her computers. She was a curvy specimen who wore a Chinese dress that was coloured pink with detached sleeves and an opening to show off her cleavage. Her hair was an auburn red tied in two brains with some left over. Her glasses reflected the images on the computer screens, showing numerous images of data and reports. Matsu was a brain-type Sekirei, meaning she had no aptitude for battle and was instead best at gathering information. She was currently unwinged, but that would likely change for her soon since Minato Sahashi had begun living at Izumo House. Of course, Matsu wasn't one to just jump into things so she was busy researching Minato to see what kind of person he was. Of course, it wasn't the only thing she was up to. She was also doing research favours for Homura to keep an eye out for certain Sekirei who might be in trouble.

"Let's see," Matsu mumbled to herself as she typed in data. "Number 65: Taki. Where are you?" Hitting the enter key, she brought up the profile of the Sekirei of the Mist. Reading it over, she blinked in confusion, "Huh? Ashikabi is Eiyūō Kamiya? Wasn't she winged to that Mikogami guy before?"

She quickly began typing up commands to see just who this new player was. His profile came up and she quickly began reading it over. He came from Fuyuki city, graduated from high school, decent grades, no kind of police record even for delinquency. All in all, he seemed like a decent fellow. What was weird though was that for the past year, he had been considered a missing person. Where had he gone? Why did he pop up now in Shin-Tokyo just as the Sekirei Plan was in its first stage?

"Fuhuhuhu!" Matsu giggled to herself. "I smell a mystery!"

* * *

**Honeymoon Suite**

Eiyūō towelled out his hair, finally clean after so long and looking more like gold than dishwater blonde once again. The bath had done wonders for him and he finally felt relaxed and able to think straight. The day had been a mix of highs and lows before coming down. He'd killed someone, almost killed someone, apparently met a supernatural being called a Sekirei, got himself mated to her, and now he was lucky enough to be in an expensive hotel room with an actual meal waiting for him. He could have called himself lucky since he was getting a room and a meal from a beautiful girl like Taki. Although all of her talk about a Sekirei Plan needed some explaining still. Hopefully Taki would be willing to talk a bit more about it.

Pulling his clothes on, he walked back out into the suite. He immediately noticed three trolleys laid out with a wide variety of food. Sitting on the bed was Taki who was talking to someone on the phone.

"Yes Professor, I'm fine," she reassured the person on thee other end. "No, he has been very nice to me so far. No, he doesn't know what it is he did, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. Oh yes! I think he's my true Ashikabi! I have no doubts! Oh thank-you Professor!" glancing up with a smile, she spotted Eiyūō. "Oh, here he is Professor! Should I put you on? Okay!" Taki lifted the receiver from the phone and held it out for Eiyūō. "It's for you."

Now very confused, Eiyūō trekked across the room and took the phone from his Sekirei's hand. Lifting it to his ear, he gave a hesitant, "Hello?"

"_BUM BA BUM BUM BA BUUUUUUUUUUM!_" the voice of a man cheered out, trying to imitate a dramatic drum roll. However, the phone wasn't the only place in which the voice was coming from. The TV had suddenly turned on in front of the sofas to reveal a man in a lab outfit with a large cape, rectangular glasses, and shock white hair.

"Congratulations young man!" the strange man grinned widely. "Your ingenuity and abilities have allowed you to become part of the Sekirei Plan and receive a chance to ascend!"

"Uh…" Eiyūō blinked. This was odd, and considering his curse it was able to hurl swords out of some kind of pocket dimension that was saying something.

"Indeed when we found that Number 65: Taki has been suddenly re-winged we were quite understandable shocked," the man continued, folding his arms imperiously. "We feared that perhaps an enemy agent had managed to sever her bond and force her to side against us! Now though it seems we can rest easy for the most part."

Eiyūō looked to the phone and hung it up. Walking to the television set, he sat down in front of it. The weirdo's gaze followed him, indicating that he was somehow able to see him moving about through the screen. Was there a camera somewhere? Still, this was likely his chance to likely get some answers.

"So…uh…is there anything I should know about this Sekirei Plan then?" the blonde boy asked.

"Ah, I cannot tell you much. That is up to Taki since I cannot show such favouritism!" the man grinned. "However, I can tell you one thing. It is up to the Sekirei and their Ashikabi to fight, and fight, and fight for the right to ascend until there is only one left!"

"So it's a tournament then," Eiyūō nodded.

"Yes! One which must be held in the strictest of secrecy!" the white-haired man nodded. "You must not tell anyone about its existence or of the Sekirei lest you force us at MBI to bring down all of our resources in silencing you."

'_I'd like to see you try with what I have stashed away,_' Eiyūō's darker side bragged silently. Ignoring it, he decided to ask something else which came to mind when he realized that the Sekirei Plan was a tournament. "Am I going to be in trouble for taking Taki away from whoever her other Ashikabi was?"

"Bah! Of course not!" the man laughed. "You are a living wild card anomaly! I just love those! They make the game more interesting for all of the other players! So long as you keep that ability to yourself, I see no reason why you cannot continue! Besides, Number 65 seems much happier with you than Hayato Mikogami anyway!"

Eiyūō felt some relief at that. He didn't want to have to fight off people like MBI who were rumoured to be so powerful that they even managed to employ their own private army to fight off the number of corporate spies and terrorist assaults on their branches all over Japan. If they could control meta-humans like the Sekirei then did he really stand a chance.

"And now I will leave the further details to your Taki," the man smirked, striking a pose. "I wish you luck and remind you treasure the bond between you and your Sekirei for it will your key to victory!" With a strange dramatic laugh, the man vanished from the television leaving it blank once again.

Eiyūō blinked at where the strange man had beeen and wondered why he wasn't in some kind of special home. Movement on the cushions alerted him to Taki sitting down next to him. Glancing to her, he saw her smile gently as if trying to reassure him.

"So…care to explain the Sekirei Plan?" he asked hopefully.

"Of course," the mist-user smiled.

* * *

**Shin-Tokyo (Host Club)**

Number 03: Kazehana was a girl who liked to party. Having one of the most voluptuous bodies out of all of the Sekirei helped her get into just about any celebration out there. She was wearing a purple dress with an incredibly short skirt with a neckline running down to her naval with only criss-crossing strips of fabric keeping her decency intact. Her long obsidian hair looked silky to the touch and made for a pretty face like hers. Despite having the appearance of a lush party girl, she was a former member of MBI's Disciplinary Squad and responsible for protecting the Sekirei ship from the numerous soldiers who attempted to take it for its secrets. She was skilled, intelligent, and canny but in the end she was just a girl who wanted to have fun. So she partied and she partied hard. Of course, she was also a world class flirt and would often go to host clubs to have men lavish attention on her and see if she could unnerve them.

So far she was batting 100 in that regard.

But that wasn't tonight.

At the moment she was enjoying sips of mild sake as she sat across from one of her fellow Sekirei, Homura. The flame user would work as a host in his spare time to support himself between patrols to protect his fellow Sekirei. She'd stop by and say hello, share some drinks, and offer some of the rumours she had heard about her fellow Sekirei from her misadventures in bars. At the moment, she was hearing about something new.

"A boy that can create swords?" she blinked, looking at Homura with a raised eyebrow. They were seated at a comfortable sofa with the busty woman leaning against the white-haired man dressed in a casual suit and clothes like a man who was born to charm women. Taking their roles seriously Kazehana might do, but she couldn't resist trying to unnerve her fellow Sekirei at the same time. Unfortunately, his news put a hold on those thoughts.

"Are you sure he's not a Scrapped Number?" she asked.

"I thought he was until I called Ta…that woman," Homura replied, recalling Kazehana's dislike for Takami. The woman did manage to beat Kazehana of all people to the man she loved. "She said that all of the Sekirei are accounted for and that he's not one of them. What makes it weirder though is that he managed to unwing Number 65 from her Ashikabi and wing her to himself."

THAT got Kazehana's attention, "He did? But…isn't that impossible?"

"Thought it was, but apparently not," Homura frowned. "I'd go look for him, but there's something else that needs my attention."

"What?"

"Number 108 is in the middle of the botanical gardens," Homura reported. "She was out on a daytrip when she got attacked and she made them grow out of control to protect herself from that Ashikabi who tried to take her."

"Wait…Kusano? That little sweetie?" Kazehana gasped. "She's all alone in there?"

"Yes," Homura nodded. "She's safe at the moment but I've spotted an Ashikabi or two sniffing around trying to see if there was an unwinged Sekirei around. I've been keeping them at bay until MBI could recover her, but so far nothing's been done. It's been making me uneasy."

"I see," Kazehana nodded, her eyes narrowing. "You feel that your first responsibility is to her and you're asking me to keep an eye out for this sword boy?"

"Yes," Homura nodded. "I know you don't want to take part in the Sekirei Plan. I figured since his ability doesn't apply to it…"

"I get it," the voluptuous woman nodded. "I don't see the harm. So tell me what this handsome lug looks like and I'll keep my eyes peeled for him."

"Appreciate it," the fire-user nodded before he pulled out his cell phone and began cycling for the image Takami had sent him earlier.

Hopefully they'd be able to solve this mystery before someone got hurt.

* * *

**Honeymoon Suite**

Eiyūō blinked as he digested everything Taki told him about the Sekirei Plan and even the full story about what a Sekirei was. Apparently two decades ago the CEO of MBI, Hiroto Minaka had discovered the Sekirei ship with one Sekirei onboard and 107 fertilized eggs of the remaining Sekirei. He used the technology he managed to gleam from the ship to begin MBI and revolutionize the fields he applied the technology to. Why he started the Sekirei Plan Taki wasn't too sure. What she did know was that it was currently in phase one in which the Sekirei were gradually released into the city to find their Ashikabi.

Battles with the Sekirei had a strict set of rules. Sekirei who fought were not allowed to attack the opposing Ashikabi, but Eiyūō had knew that in any game so long as the people in charge weren't watching there were those who would break the rules. To actually win a battle, the opposing Sekirei's crest had to be removed either by having their enemy touch it and recite what they called a 'Norito' or simply beat up the opponent to the point they couldn't function anymore.

This information sort of made Eiyūō understand why what he did to Taki was so confusing. The blade he hit her with managed to remove her crest but instead of shutting her down like it was supposed to, she simply reverted to her unwinged status and became available for another Ashikabi like him.

The Ashikabi and Sekirei pair was busy with their meals which were long overdue. Eiyūō had a tray to himself filled with a number of expensive foods which tasted like nirvana after his time living off scraps. Taki on the other hand was plowing through two trays of food and it didn't look like she was slowing down. Apparently Sekirei required more food than a human did. It certainly explained how she was able to stay so thin if she needed to eat so much.

"Your old Ashikabi probably won't be happy about this," he commented, hearing the information about Sekirei Crests. "Is he likely to come after me?"

"I doubt he even remembers my name now," Taki sighed. "Hayato Mikogami is called the Ashikabi of the South by the others. It's a title he earned by having so many winged Sekirei on his side. There are two others with multiple Sekirei who are in the east and west parts of the city while the north remains unclaimed."

"Sounds like a big shot then," Eiyūō commented. "That many Sekirei reacted to him?"

"No. Likely only Mutsu did," Taki huffed. "He forced the rest of to be winged by him. Likely the others did the same. One or two is normal, but seven including me? No, he forced us. Some of us adjusted better than others, but I for one didn't enjoy myself."

Eiyūō shuddered at the frosty tone in her voice. If winging was a big a deal as Taki said it was, then forcing it was something akin to rape, "So just who is this Mikogami guy anyway? Was he that bad?"

Taki sighed and chewed aggressively on a piece of fish before she made her reply, "He's a fifteen-year old spoiled brat. The Sekirei Plan is one big game to him and we are all just his toys. I really doubt he gets just how serious it can get. He's certainly showed it off enough times. Just recently he ordered one of his Sekirei to attack an MBI employee just so he could forcibly wing they were on a day trip with. It was at the botanical gardens and I was forced to run interference with my mist so no one saw."

Eiyūō frowned at the description he was hearing of the Mikogami brat. It seemed he had no sense of the real world or that actions had consequences. Everything that seemed to matter was simply what he wanted. The guy probably didn't even consider the fact that he could have killed someone.

"I seriously doubt he's going to go after you for unwinging me," Taki continued. "Of course, he's thrown tantrums at games he's begun losing or was put at a disadvantage with in the past if his video games were any indication. Once he finds out you stole me from him then there might be troubles."

"Great," Eiyūō grumbled.

"But don't worry!" Taki insisted, brightening up again. "With your sword ability I'm sure that he won't be able to even get close to you! I'll bet even a single digit like Mutsu wouldn't be able to get you!"

"That…doesn't fill me with confidence," Eiyūō sighed. "I hate this curse of mine. I can't control it."

"I'm sure you could with a little practice," Taki replied. "Many of us Sekirei had some troubles with our own powers at first but with some training and practice we managed to get the hang of them in the end. I know you can too!"

Eiyūō remained silent. It was nice to hope he could get a hold on this curse of his, but with no idea how it kept triggering beyond adrenaline, he decided to instead keep out of the ways of people and avoid risking their lives on a moment of surprise turning them into shish-ka-bobs. He'd always seen practicing with it as a surefire way to kill something or someone.

"Still, that's for later though," Taki continued. "Right now we should concentrate on getting you situated as a proper Ashikabi."

"And how do we do that?" asked Eiyūō.

"A shopping trip of course!" the mist user beamed. "Every Ashikabi at least has to have a cell phone so that they can be kept up to date on everything concerning the Sekirei Plan and changes to the game! Besides, I'm sure you wouldn't say no to a new wardrobe either!"

"And how are we going to pay for that?" the blonde boy replied, digging into his bowl of rice. "I have no money."

"But I do," Taki smiled. "Every Sekirei is given a special MBI card that has unlimited funds so we can buy anything we want!"

Eiyūō blinked, a little surprised at that turn of good fortune. Unlimited funds? Really? Well, considering how much Taki alone needed to eat feeding 108 Sekirei altogether would have been expensive and MBI must have decided to shoulder the burden of that since not everybody was able to buy everything like they could. Actually, it would make being partnered easier since they wouldn't have to worry about expenses all the time and would be able to concentrate on the Sekirei Plan and what to do about his curse.

"I dunno…" he mumbled, a little ashamed for even considering letting Taki buy him things when he really didn't do anything to deserve it. Hell, buy him things should be the absolute last thing she should be doing considering he almost got her killed.

"Oh don't worry about it," the mist-user insisted. "Consider it a necessary expense to becoming an Ashikabi."

"Well…" since she put it that way, he could justify it.

"Excellent," Taki beamed. "We can go shopping tomorrow!"

Justified or not, Eiyūō felt like he was in for a long do once the sun went up. Speaking of which… "Say, if there's only one bed where am I supposed to sleep?"

"With me of course!"

"…HUH?-!"

* * *

**Higa Pharmaceutical**

Standing inside of his office was the Ashikabi of the East, Izumi Higa. Heir of the Higa Pharmaceutical company, he found out about the Sekirei Plan by employing the best hackers in the world to try and steal some of the secrets which MBI had and instead stumbled onto an outline of the Sekirei and the plan. He naturally saw it as a means of toppling his family company rivals in MBI.

To that end, he had used his resources to track down all the Sekirei he could and forcibly wing them. If he couldn't wing them himself, he paid or blackmailed their Ashikabi into serving him. His cutthroat tactics allowed him to claim the east side of Shin-Tokyo for his territory in the Sekirei Plan.

To Higa, the Sekirei weren't human and this not worth his time beyond how their abilities could serve his cause. He didn't trust any of them and certainly had no qualms about pushing them to their breaking points for the sake of his goals. It was an unsurprising mindset for him since he didn't even treat his employees with an ounce of trust but human laws prevented him from pushing them in the ways he did his Sekirei.

At the moment, Higa was in his office with one of his Sekirei, a woman who wore a white sleeveless top and a purple skirt. She had white hair and glasses which could hang around her neck by the strings which were attached to the frame. Her name was Kochou, a brain-type Sekirei who was for all accounts the backbone of Higa's operations in the Sekirei Plan.

"A man who can generate swords?" Higa asked sceptically.

"Yes," Kochou nodded. "Reports that I took from MBI databases says that he was able to unwing Number 65 without consequence before re-winging her to himself."

That managed to garner Higa's attention. Turning to look at Kochou over his shoulder, he raised an eyebrow in interest, "Is that confirmed? I was told it was impossible to re-wing a Sekirei."

"The data does not lie," the brain-type nodded. "This Eiyūō Kamiya is able to unwing a Sekirei without consequence and re-wing them to himself."

"Interesting," Higa commented, turning his gaze back out to look over the city. Obtaining an Ashikabi like that onto his side would be a boon to his plans and strategies. He would no longer have to bribe or blackmail other Ashikabi in his territory, but just have this new fellow unwing their Sekirei and have them become wings to Higa himself. "Where is he now?"

"Inside a hotel near the middle of the city," Kochou answered. "Shall we send Ichiya and Toyotama?"

"No," Higa replied. "Observe him for now. Learn his habits and then we'll approach him with an offer later."

"Very well," Kochou nodded before she turned and left the office.

Higa wasn't one to jump without first knowing what he was up against. If he was, he wouldn't have gotten to where he was no and he certainly wouldn't be on the road to becoming the future ruler of the world.

* * *

**Ten-Faced Paladin: Okay, not I KNOW that I broke rules in the Nasuverse so fans of that universe will likely hate me and want to flame me. How Eiyuo got the Gates of Babylon will be explained as the story progressed...if this story continues. He won't be the only one with such special abilities of an Ashikabi either. If you want this story to go on, great. If not, I tried.**


	20. Wings of Desire

**I do not own Sekirei or Kamen Rider OOO. The story is merel a work of fiction for entertain,ent purposes. I hope you all enjoy it and will keep reading my works. If you don't like it, I apologize and wish you luck in finding tales that you do enjoy on this site.**

**WINGS OF DESIRE**

**First Wing:**

_I do not own Sekirei or Kamen Rider OOO. Those belong to their respective creators and not me. I am only writing this piece of work for personal amusement and hopefully for the amusement of only character I do own is Matthew MacGregor. So if there is no reason for anyone to complain at the moment, let's begin the story._

**oO/O\Oo**

Shin-Tokyo was a sprawling metropolis which held the headquarters of the mysterious Mid Bio Informatics or MBI for short. With their technology spanning into just about every possible field from medical to mundane, the economy had received a massive boost. Buildings were clean, health issues had been resolved, and employment for the most part was up.

For the most part…

Walking along the packed public streets was someone who stuck out somewhat. He had brown hair and stood somewhat taller than a good portion of the Japanese folks that were walking around him. His facial features were Caucasian, marking him as a foreigner to the country. He stood out, earning some looks from the people around him but not vibrantly so such as someone who would have had brightly coloured hair or darker skin like the ganguro girls who were so well known in the teen scene.

He was dressed in colourful clothes that looked even more foreign than he did, but they were tasteful. So rather than simply sticking out like a sore thumb, he looked more fashionable than anything else. He held a pack on his back that looked a little bulking, indicating that he was carrying a few objects. A few people assumed he was a foreign backpacker who had decided to travel Japan to learn about the country. Lots of young people did that with one country or another at least.

The boy's name was Matthew MacGregor and unbeknownst to those around him, he wasn't supposed to be in Japan. He didn't have a passport, didn't initially speak the language, and had no clue beyond a cursory knowledge about the culture.

How did he get into Japan despite this? Not even he knew.

Matthew was a cosplayer, someone who travelled to conventions dressed as his favourite media character. In this case, Eiji Hino of the Kamen Rider OOO franchise. He came all the way from Canada which was of course a long way from Japan which begged the question of how he got to the island nation.

(FLASHBACK)

_**Toronto, Canada**_

_Matthew was running down the street in his home city, trying to get to the convention centre on time so he wouldn't miss the opening acts which celebrated the beginning of the anime convention._

"_I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!" he cried out, panicking. "Jeff's going to kill me if I don't get him his Birth stuff!"_

_Matthew and a fellow anime and tokusatsu enthusiast known as Jeff were entered into a cosplay competition, entering as Eiji Hino and Date Akira who were both Kamen Riders. It was Matthew's responsibility to bring the Birth Driver for his friend since he had all of the necessary props. It was through Matthew's internet shopping that he had gotten all of the Birth and OOO equipment, including several Cell Medals as well as the full sets of Core Medals which included the movie-only black and orange Cores. It was an impressive collection and he was hoping to show it off at the convention._

_Running along the street, Matthew noticed an alleyway which looked clear and came out to the opposite side of the street which was where he was heading. He immediately swerved in his running and charged down the space between buildings, keeping his goal in mind._

_Then the air cracked open._

_That was what it looked like to him. The air in front of him suddenly seemed to crack which opened up into what looked like a swirling pink and purple vortex. Matthew was obviously caught off guard by the sudden opening and ended up taking a serious tumble. That tumbling sent him sprawling right into the centre of the vortex, allowing it to swallow him before it shut tight again._

_And no one even noticed._

(END FLASHBACK)

What the tear in existence was and why it opened up just as he was running down the alley as uncoordinated as he was eluded Matthew's mind. When the stars and motion sickness cleared from him, he woke up in another alley. Stepping out, he had discovered that he was in the middle of a cityscape with Asian people walking around with some sparing him a second glance and all of the signs were written in Japanese. One may have assumed they somehow landed in Chinatown or something, but Matthew was able to tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese from the language being spoken and some of the features of the people walking around.

After some initial panic and asking at an information kiosk that was found near one of the airports he discovered he was in a place called Shin-Tokyo. It used to be called Tokyo, but that was before a company called Mid-Bio Informatics bought up ninety percent of the property and revolutionized it with the bulk of their products and inventions, causing people to nickname the city Shin-Tokyo.

Matthew spent his first couple of days attempting to contact home through the international phone boxes that were located in the Japanese city. Unfortunately, his home phone number didn't seem to exist since he never got any kind of response. He could barely speak a few phrases of Japanese he learned in preparation for a trip to Japan he hoped to take one day after graduation, and those were simple questions as to where he could find things like hotels, stores, bathrooms, and restaurants. The only thing he really had going for him was the 800 dollars which he had brought with him to the convention which he would have spent on anime, manga, and similar things. Instead, he swapped it for it's equivalent in Yen at a currency exchange at another major transportation hub. It totalled around 80, 000 Yen which would last if he spent wisely.

Matthew was thrifty with his money, spending it only on food and hotels. In an effort to keep his cash spending to a minimum, he attempted to stay in a capsule hotel which more or less meant he would rent out a private tubular cubbyhole in a wall of tubular cubbyholes which had a tiny television set and was only big enough for him to sleep in and do absolutely nothing else. He couldn't even sit up, having to slide into the capsule lying down to try and sleep.

Yeah, one night of that was enough for him.

Getting a normal hotel wasn't as easy as it should have been. Not after he mistook a love hotel for a normal one and got a weird look from the clerk until she figured out that he had misread the sign out front and took pity on him. Apparently he wasn't the first person who made such a mistake, thankfully for his sense of pride.

Still, the immersion in the foreign culture did help him pick up the language rapidly, enough to make sure he could be understood and not offend somebody by accident. He could order food and ask what it was without getting strange looks and he could enter hotels which some of the people who worked there could actually speak English and help him if he was confused about something. It was rough going for a while, but it seemed he lucked out and managed to get his bearings on how he would survive long enough to figure out his next move.

If only that were the extent of his troubles though.

Crossing an intersection through the city, Matthew glanced over his shoulder as he habitually did every couple of minutes. He scanned the faces of the other pedestrians behind him as well as some of the cars that were on the road. The people didn't stand out too much from the norm bringing him some sense of relief. The array of cars on the other hand though were something else altogether. Most of them were functional things that were made more for saving space, fuel, and the like with only a few of them more stylish than that, likely owned by somebody who was rolling in money or was some hot dog who thought that having some fancy and expensive car would get him more attention from the ladies. The one that stood out most of all though was the white limousine that had just turned onto the street and was moving slower than the rest of the traffic on the street.

"The brat's getting impatient today," Matthew frowned to himself. Turning his gaze back ahead, he followed the sidewalk, looking for someplace a little more…private.

Finding an open park which was conveniently empty likely due to everyone being at work or school at the moment, Matthew came to a stop near the public fountain. He unslung his backpack and dug through it to pull out a rectangular belt buckle which had three slots in the front which was black with blue lines across its surface. He pressed the buckle against his waist where a strap wrapped around him and locked in place. Appearing on the sides was a roll of silver coins on the left and a round disk on the right. He then reached into his pack to pull out a book which was coloured like the buckle. Opening revealed several sets of coloured coins which came in sets of nine with a series of three marked with an animal. He quickly took out a red coin marked with a hawk, a yellow coin marked with a tiger, and a green coin marked with a grasshopper before placing the book back in the bag. Taking all three, he slotted them into buckle with red on the right, yellow in the middle, and green on left. He then shifted the buckle into a diagonal position, making a pulsing noise come from the item itself.

"I know you're there Mikogami!" Matthew shouted out. "Your company car was kind of a giveaway!"

Rather than receive a verbal answer, a cloud of mist swiftly covered the area. It was reasonably thick, keeping everything more or less hidden from sight. Anyone who walked into it would see next to nothing unless they were in a few feet away from it. In other words, it was the perfect way to conceal something in the middle of the city so that nobody would ask any questions or even blink twice. Japan was an island nation so mist wasn't uncommon for it. Frowning as the mist covered everything, Matthew turned when he heard a malicious giggle sound off in the distance. He frowned when he saw three women step out of the mist.

The first was a blonde woman who had her hair split into two ponytails. She was wearing white gloves and a one piece dress which clung to her figure tightly. It was black on the sides with a yellow stripe down the middle which matched her black boots which went up to her thighs. The girl next to her was dressed in the exact same way and looked like her in down to the hairstyle, making Matthew believe that the pair were twins.

The woman behind them seemed to be a bit more mature in terms of figure. She was dressed in a white jacket which was opened on the front and left a lot of her cleavage exposed along with down to her stomach. She thankfully wore a white skirt with black straps around her hips. Her hair was a striking shade of gray which ran down past her hips and her face was pretty, if not a little intense.

All three were rather curvy and any other man who saw them would have been drooling after them. Matthew would have lust for them as well and he still did, but whatever hormonal urge that came over him at seeing them was tempered by his history with the three girls. All three were bad news as far as he was concerned and he would have to be a complete idiot to try and forget about that simply because the three of them were hot.

"Mitsuki, Mitsuha, Taki," Matthew frowned, naming both blondes and the white-haired girl respectively. "You're looking well. Guess when we last butted heads it wasn't as bad as I thought!"

"We owe you for that one!" Mitsuki snapped, pointing at Matthew angrily.

"Even if you surrender we'll beat you up for all the times you made us look bad in front of Mikogami-sama!" Mitsuha agreed.

"Good thing I won't be surrendering then!" Matthew frowned. "Just how long are you going to keep chasing me anyway?"

"As long as it takes to bring you or your little coin collection to Mikogami-sama!" the first blonde snapped. "Take this!"

The irate blonde lashed out with her hand, unleashing several long wires which were attached to her fingers, all of them lashing out towards the boy she and her fellows were targeting. Matthew immediately rolled to the side, dodging the attack. Getting to his knees, he grasped the circular device on his hip and swiped the front of it across the Medals on his belt, making three chiming noises while coloured rings spread like ripples from the coins. "Henshin!"

"**TAKA!**"

"**TORA!**"

"**BATTA!**"

"**TA-TO-BA! TATOBA! TA-TO-BA!**"

A series of large, circular projections spun around him, two sets vertically and a set horizontally before three large projections of the medals he'd inserted in his belt merged before slamming into his body to form his armor.

Matthew's entire body became covered in a black bodysuit and armour. In the centre of his chest was a large round circle with three designs on it. Squeezed at the bottom was the image of a green grasshopper. In the centre and taking up most of the space was a yellow tiger and finally with barely any room at the top was a red hawk. His legs were covered with thin green armour at the front which was segmented not unlike a grasshopper's legs. Connected to the armour were green lines which connected to the grasshopper marking on her chest. Yellow lines extended from the tiger marking, past the rounded shoulders with yellow edges and ended at yellow gauntlets which had sharp blades folded back on the wrists. Finally the hawk symbol left a red line leading up to his face which was now concealed under a helmet that had large green eyes and a face plate which looked like a flying bird.

He brandished his Tora Claws which folded out and cut at the wires trying to attach to him before his feet turned grasshopper-like as he leaped back to make some distance between himself and the women.

"Tsk!" Mitsuha hissed. "That armour is damn annoying!

"You know, if you just gave those coins to us we wouldn't have to keep chasing you!" Taki huffed, looking like a woman who was dealing with an annoying routine yet again rather than being part of a squad of attackers out to beat up someone and steal from them.

"And hand them over to a spoiled brat who doesn't have a clue how dangerous they are? Fat chance," Matthew, or rather Kamen Rider OOO retorted while taking another stance. "Now, you girls know how this is going to end and I'd rather not hurt such pretty girls."

"Aww, you're so sweet," Taki smiled. "It's a shame we're going to have to do this."

Mitsuki and Mitsuha immediately lashed out with weapons. For Mitsuki it was her strings while Mitsuha held a whip. The lengths of modified weaponry cut through the air and would have smashed against OOO, but he managed to cut the strings and knock the whip out of the air. Still, several of the strings which Mitsuki was manipulating outside the cluster she first sent managed to slip through and wrap around his right wrist, having been distracted by the larger concentration of strings and the whip.

"Got you!" Mitsuki grinned.

"You have nothing!" Matthew snapped, cutting the strings on his wrist. One of the things he hated most about fighting the whip twins was how they seemed to think they were hot stuff and loved to tease him about it simply because he was human and they were Sekirei. Even if he humbled them before, they chalked it up to being unprepared for his abilities which considering the full range of OOO's options, was not a bad excuse. Still, there was reasonable excuses and there was outright denial and the twins were skirting the line between the two.

He squared off against the pair, Mitsuki somehow gaining more length on her strings while Mitsuha pulled back her whip, ready for another attack. Taki remained hanging at the back since she had no recall offensive capabilities and was a supportive role with her mist to keep people from seeing what was going on as well as try to keep OOO's sight hindered by the mist to keep him ignorant of his surroundings. It was a standard drill that was employed whenever Taki would get involved: hide her comrades in the mist and use it to confuse the target. A good tactic, but one that tended to lose some effectiveness as it was used over and over again on the same person.

"I'm in no mood to deal with you three," OOO muttered, knowing he only had a matter of time before the trio's commander decided to send in reinforcements or worse, attend the battle himself. Leaping back, he reached his bag and produced his Medal Book to search for another weapon. Opening the item up, he carefully selected the right Medal. This one was a sapphire blue and held the image of an eel on it. Moving like someone who had numerous experiences in using the Medals, he replaced his Tora Medal with his Unagi Medal. Placing the book away, he took his O-Scanner and swiped it across the O-Driver.

"**TAKA!**"

"**UNAGI!**"

"**BATTA!**"

The Medal crests appeared in front of him before forming together and fusing with his armour. His chest plate changed with the centre section holding the unagi crest in it. His shoulders had fins sticking from the black with blue lengths rounding under the shoulders. White lightning bolts ran down the arms and white cords extended from the shoulders to stick into the blue pads on the hands. Transformation completed OOO grabbed the ends of the cords on his wrists and yanked, revealing the cords to be whips as he pulled them free. Electricity crackled off their surfaces as they touched the ground.

"Hey! You're copying us!" shouted Mitsuha, outraged at how their opponent gained weapons like theirs.

"All's fair in love and war!"

OOO lashed out with his whips, aiming at the twins to try and take them down and escape from their constant attacks. Mitsuki proved once again her inhuman status with her reflexes as she created a large net with her strings, easily blocking the whip attacks. OOO didn't stop as he allowed the strikes to hit the Sekirei's net, but instead gripped the whip handles to increase the voltage they gave off. A loud zapping noise echoed from the impact points on the net before flashes of light came from the impact points. The voltage carried through the strings, surging right into Mitsuki's body.

"ACK!" Mitsuki screamed, jolted off her feet by the attack. Her body was actually smoking from the strike.

"Mitsuki!" Mitsuha screamed for her sister, but she then turned to glare at OOO, "You bastard!"

Mitsuha lashed out with her whips once again, matched by OOO own. Sparks flew through the air at the impact, but Mitsuha barely received any shocks since unlike her sister, her weapon was made from a non-conductive material. The sparks lit up the area, making it look like a small storm was sparking up in the middle of the mist.

OOO ducked under an attack aimed at his head from Mitsuha before he unleashed a pincher move with both of his whips. The whip-user had been so concentrated on trying to get a lethal blow in with the rage over what had happened to her sister, she had managed to leave an opening in her defence which OOO took advantage of. The Unagi Whips wrapped around her and unleashed another full blast of electricity. The blonde Sekirei screamed before she mercifully passed out, her form smoking like her sister's.

OOO recalled his whips, dropping Mitsuha to the ground before attaching them to his suit once again, "Those two never learn." Granted, to a normal person they would be strong and they were certainly skilled in their weapons. Again though, they kept underestimating him on account of he was human and they were Sekirei, which made them feel like they were superior to him despite how he let his armour be configured. It's what kept allowing him to drive them off, if not knock them out so he could get away.

He looked over to Taki, who looked increasingly nervous seeing as her only two means of defence were taken down. As stated before, she was a support Sekirei and had no means of attacking. Without the twins to protect her, she was a sitting duck. Sighing, OOO ignored the fear in her eyes and spoke, "I'd tell you to get Mikogami to leave me alone but we both know the spoiled brat won't listen."

Shaking his head, OOO walked towards his bag and retrieved it. Removing his O-Driver, he allowed the armour to vanish. Slinging the pack over his shoulder, he walked away from the scene of the battle and hopefully to some peace for at least the day. Of course, peace was a term that was slowly losing it's presence in his life. Grumbling, he adjusted his bag, "What would make the day just 'perfect' would be if Higa decided to send his crazy secretary after me."

Matthew vanished into the mist and once he was sure Taki couldn't see him anymore, he started running. Not only did he not want any of Mikogami's reinforcement's to show up, but didn't want Mikogami himself to appear, which Matthew knew he would since the kid treated every fight like some kind of sporting even he just had to get front row seats to. Wherever Mikogami went, that psycho Mutsu was with him. Matthew had only met the gray/brown-haired swordsman once during Mikogami's second attempt at claiming him, but it was enough for Matthew to tell that he wasn't like the other Sekirei which had gone after him in the past. He was a killer, plain and simple.

It still begged the question for the uninformed; just what on earth was a Sekirei? The name itself was applied to a species of bird which was native to Japan called a wagtail, but that certainly wasn't the case in Matthew's situation. He learned (from experience) that Sekirei indeed looked just as human as he or anyone else did, but the difference was that Sekirei had superpowers. There was really no rhyme or reason to what exactly those powers were. Some were like Mitsuki and Mitsuha who had immense strength and skill, more so than any other human on earth and it didn't apply to merely weapons but also their fists and feet in martial arts attacks. Other Sekirei were able to control the elements like Taki could control mist, but those types seemed to be a bit rarer than the weapon or martial art users. Most of the Sekirei were female, which made him believe that there was some kind of gender misbalance or something with them.

Matthew had no idea Sekirei even existed until he stumbled onto a battle that was two on one with superpowers galore. Later he discovered it had been an attempt by the Ashikabi known as Higa to collect more Sekirei to his cause. Not knowing that, Matthew had transformed into OOO and leaped in when it looked like the two on one battle was turning into a curb stomp that the pair were having way too much fun with. He and the other Sekirei had managed to fight off the pair and send them running, but it left him confused as to what the heck was happening. He tried asking the intended victim what was going on. Though reluctant, she finally decided that Matthew was unusual enough to be able to believe her secret as well as keep it hidden from everyone else.

Sekirei were aliens.

According to the Sekirei he had rescued, a poor girl named Kuno, Sekirei had come to earth on a ship a few hundred years ago but had crashed into the ocean. Twenty years ago, the ship was discovered by the CEO of MBI and he had let all of the Sekirei out, the same company which currently owned ninety percent of Tokyo. It wasn't with good intentions though as he only let them out to begin a scheme that he had affectionately called his Sekirei Plan. The main idea of the Sekirei Plan was that the 108 Sekirei would be released into the city where they had to partner up with a human and go to battle with all of the other Sekirei. The last one standing would 'ascend' and receive a prize which as far as anyone knew, would be the ability to make their dreams come true. It was one big war with everyone for themselves and it would be cutthroat if the prize was anything to go by.

Human partners to a Sekirei were called Ashikabi, a word that Matthew had never heard of before. Thanks to his impulsive rescue of Kuno, he had gained the attention of a pair of the most powerful Ashikabi in the city. One was Mikogami, a rich boy who had an unhealthy fascination with him since he was a living embodiment of a tokusatsu show and as such Matthew was on the top of his wish list next to more Sekirei to win the Sekirei Plan. The other was an asshole named Higa who worked in some corporation that took control the east side of the city and used Sekirei as his own replaceable shock troops. Numerous times Higa's girls had tried to buy his Medals from him or failing that, beat him down and take them. When the Kamen Rider would beat them, the conscious attackers would leave their comrades behind to whatever fate was in store for them. Mikogami would also send his own Sekirei to try and grab the Medals, but they met as much success as Higa's troops did but they had the decency to collect their wounded before they ran.

It really painted a grim picture of the Sekirei Plan and Matthew wanted nothing to do with it. If those strange chicks wanted to kill each other over a vague prize, they were welcome to do it. He just wished their Ashikabi would focus more on their stupid tournament and less on him.

He had enough troubles.

* * *

**WINGS OF DESIRE**

**A Sekirei/Kamen Rider OOO Crossover**

**Written by Ten-Faced Paladin**

**Chapter 1: **

* * *

The sun was high in the sky over Shin-Tokyo once again, allowing the people who resided there to head out to their daily activities. From above, the city looked as peaceful as any city could really get. One really couldn't have believed that the city was slowly becoming more and more the battlefield for the 108 Sekirei which MBI was releasing from their facilities wherever they may be and the Ashikabi who each of the Sekirei select to give them their wings and do battle.

Matthew was walking down the streets of Shin-Tokyo once again, fresh from his stay at yet another hotel which drained his cash even further and kept a roof over his head for another night. He never stayed in a hotel longer than a single night since he didn't want to give his stalkers the means to track him. Paying in cash would only delay them for so long before they could find him once again. This was the modern era after all where electronic searches were possible and both Mikogami and Higa had the resources for such things.

At the moment, he was walking down the streets with one eye on where he was going while the other was looking through a newspaper at the want ads. Since he apparently couldn't go home and he was getting low on cash, he was going to have to find a job if he wanted to keep off the streets. Hopefully there were employers in the city who weren't all that finicky about having a foreigner work for them. Of course, there was some challenge in applying for the jobs since he had to write out the resume and read the ads since they all would be in Japanese which despite getting an increasingly better grip on speaking, writing was still giving him some trouble.

"I wish there was a place where I could just work in exchange for food and board," he mumbled. That would have just made everything perfect, but places like that likely only existed in manga and anime. Nobody wanted to accept freeloaders without getting money out of it.

Walking past a woman who was dressed oddly similar to a miko with long violet hair, Matthew began heading towards what he was sure was the address to his first possible job. It was a waiter position at a bar/restaurant kind of place if what he read from the classified was understood correctly. He wanted to scope the place out first before he decided if he wanted to try and get a job there. He'd had enough experiences with having a jerk for a boss.

He just hoped he made a good first impression. Being broke and homeless weren't exactly ideal qualities for a potential employee. Of course, he made sure to make himself look presentable, despite only having the clothes on his back which he cleaned regularly and he took regular showers whenever he could. He couldn't waste money on things like clothes but the ones he had were starting to look a little worn out with all the running he was doing from Mikogami, Higa, and their Sekirei minions.

'_Just need them to last until I can get paid,_' Matthew thought to himself. '_Just hold on until that payday._'

Checking the address as well as his map, Matthew continued on towards his destination. All he had to do was arrive there, scope the place out, if he liked it he would apply for the position, and hopefully get paid quickly before all of his cash ran out. Then he could start saving up and try to keep out of the Sekirei Pl-

**BOOM!**

"Huh?" Matthew blinked, hearing the sounds of something smashing into the ground, making an echoing noise throughout the city. Down the street, a plume of dust had kicked up and obscured everything in sight. He immediately guessed that something like this didn't happen too often and the source had the same name as a certain kind of bird.

Leaping from the smoke came as expected, a pretty young woman who was developed in all the right areas. She wore a sleeveless purple sweater which didn't cover her stomach. Black bandoliers were strapped to her upper arms, filled with what looked like kunai. Her hands were likewise covered by long purple fingerless gloves. She had a short skirt that was purple and hung off her hips with a second black skirt which was much longer but open at the front with black boots that rose up to her knees. Her face was definitely cute with short black hair and violet eyes. Most identifying of all was the number 72 tattooed on her left shoulder.

Chasing her was another busty and curvy specimen of Sekirei femininity dressed in revealing white garments and a literal storm of white cloth circling around her. Her face was hidden, only long brown hair being the one personal identification Matthew could see on her. She was attacking violently, lashing out with the cloth around her like they were vicious snakes, all of which were aiming right at the purple-clad Sekirei.

The two were quite obviously fighting, the purple Sekirei throwing numerous kunai at the white one, but the cloth was blocking each blow. Unlike the purple Sekirei, the white one didn't have limitations on her attacks and could literally wait out her opponent before she took her out.

A part of Matthew wanted to ignore what was going on. If Sekirei wanted to kill each other and not him it was their business. He never wanted to be involved and he wanted nothing to do with them if he could help it. These girls, as attractive as they were, were just nothing but trouble.

Of course, another part of Matthew couldn't ignore what was happening either. The purple one was going to be trouble and these Sekirei would be attracting too much attention. Then there were the innocent bystanders in the area. The Sekirei in white looked like she wasn't too picky about how her strikes were hitting if how her weapons smashed into sidewalk or the sides of buildings were any indication. The Sekirei in purple was also battled and bruised, showing that she was on the losing side of this particular fight.

The Sekirei in white seemed to vanish in the midst of her veils, making it particularly difficult to spot her as she moved. When it seemed the kunai-user had lost her, the Sekirei in white lashed out with a particularly violent strike which slapped the Sekirei in purple across the torso. The force of the impact sent the girl clear down the street while she skidded across the pavement, her shirt being torn up and leaving some blood stains on the road as she went. She struggled to get up as the white Sekirei slowly approached, her sheets twisting on themselves to turn into drills.

The Sekirei in purple gagged, blood dribbling from her mouth, looking both scared and sad at the same time, "Ashikabi-sama... Why I couldn't find you?"

Hearing the misery in her voice, it triggered Matthew's good guy instincts. Dropping his bag, he retrieved his Medal Book and O-Driver.

'_Why do I have the feeling that I'm going to regret this?_' he asked himself, heading closer to the battle.

Matthew ran towards the battle, grabbing three orange Medals from his Medal Book. Normally he was rather cautious about using a Full Combo, allowing his OOO armour to match rather that mix up different pieces of it. In the series, Eiji Hino was left exhausted to the point of losing consciousness after he used such a combo himself. Matthew himself feared suffering the same condition if he dared to use the Full Combos on his own. Eiji managed to gain some endurance to using such combos eventually, but it wasn't an easy nor painless process. One that Matthew didn't want to experience himself. Now though, with the white Sekirei looking like she was going to actually _kill_ the purple Sekirei, his caution went out the window as he slotted the three orange Medals together into the Driver before attaching it to his waist. Grabbing his O-Scanner, he swiped it across the three Medals with the familiar cry of, "Henshin!"

"**KOBURA!**"

"**KAME!**"

"**WANI!**"

"**BURAKA~WANI!**"

The three orange crests depicting a cobra, a turtle, and a crocodile appeared before fusing together and colliding with Matthew's chest, forming his armour. His helmet was black with purple eyes, but around the top of his head was what looked almost like a turban but was in fact styled to look like a coiled cobra. His torso had pointed shoulder pads that were styled like a turtle's shell while his forearms looked like they each had a half of a turtle's shell mounted on them. Lastly, his legs were covered in orange armour that look like crocodile heads with the teeth running along his inner calves and thighs.

Donned in the orange BuraKaWani Combo armor, OOO's immediately dashed towards the battle, the Wani Legs helping him to glide along the ground easily. As the white Sekirei formed a spike out of her cloth, he picked up speed. Sliding across the distance between the two, he raised his arms and connected the shields on his arms just as the white Sekirei launched her attack.

KLANG!

The cloth spike shot towards the violet Sekirei but bounced off as it hit the energy shield projected by OOO's Gora Shielduo. The two Sekirei gaped at the sudden interruption, obviously unsure what to what to make of it. OOO saw the opening for what it was and charged towards the white Sekirei with all his speed. Getting close enough, he leaped at her and unleashed a roundhouse kick. A pulse of energy shot from his O-Lung and into his Wani Legs, activating the Saw Deadsycthers. The armour pulsed and created an image of a crocodile head which aimed to bite into the white Sekirei just as the kick would have landed. The Sekiei in white raised her cloths like a shield allowing the kick to strike them instead of her. The crocodile head bit down as the kick struck, tearing through the cloth easily and ripping it away as OOO brought his foot away and landed on the ground.

The white Sekirei stumbled back, shocked at what happened to her weapons, but OOO wasn't stopping with just shocking her. He wanted her to leave. He charged forward once again, twisting much like a snake and twisting into several roundhouse kicks, tearing more and more of the white sheets apart with each attack which the Sekirei tried to defend herself from. While the lengths of cloth could be used to fight, they certainly weren't indestructible.

OOO managed to tear away several of the veils, revealing one brown eye of the Sekirei in question. On a normal day OOO might have considered tring to see her face to see if she was cute or not, but considering how cold and brutal she had been against the purple Sekirei it wasn't even a factor to the Kamen Rider. This Sekirei was more than just aggressive like Higa or Mikogami's girls, she was downright murderous. Reluctance to participate in the Sekirei Plan aside, she had to be stopped before someone got killed.

The Sekirei in white lashed out with her torn sheets, trying to drive OOO away. The currently orange Rider brought up his arms and activated the powers of his Kame Medal, blocking the sheets from striking him once again. The strikes dove away from OOO's shields, but then swerved around to strike OOO in the back knocking him to the floor.

"Ow," OOO grumbled. Looking up, he saw the white Sekirei approaching him...and that her short loincloth/skirt was looking a little...revealing from his angle. '_I see London, I see France..._'

Shaking his head, OOO swept his feet in a circle to try and trip up his opponent, but she merely leaped up to avoid the blow. It did allow him to get back up to his feet. As the white Sekirei came back down, she lashed out with her torn sheets. OOO quickly began jumping backwards, letting the lengths of cloth crash into the pavement and in one case tear through a car door. Rolling away from one such blow, OOO took cover behind one of the parked cars, wincing as he heard the cloth spikes smash against it.

"Hope the owner has insurance," he muttered to himself. Sarcasm aside though, he knew that he wasn't going to be able to get near the attacking Sekirei with how she was rapidly lashing out. Looking to his armour, he began patting his chest, "Come on, where's the Burahngi?" As if responding to the request, OOO's chest plate flashed before an orange light phased out of it and into his hand, forming into the flute-like weapon known as the Burahngi. He quickly brought it to his faceplate where his mouth was and incredibly, began playing a tune not unlike a snake charmer's.

The tune echoed out and suddenly the top of OOO's helmet flashed before a large orange cobra rose up with an angry hiss. OOO then changed the tune, causing the cobra to lunge forward towards the visibly shocked Sekirei. OOO wasn't entirely sure, but he was sure that he heard the white Sekirei give off a cry of fear as the snake slithered towards her, but the music drowned her out. The torn lengths of cloth curled into drills again before lashing out at the approaching snake. OOO kept the music going, allowing the snake to dodge the attacks with almost unnatural reflexes. It soon reached the white Sekirei and curled up her leg before unleashing another hiss and digging its fangs into her thigh.

"GAH!" the Sekirei screamed, smashing the snake's head with her fist to make it let go. She stumbled back, grasping the small wound as OOO stopped playing, bringing the cobra back to his helmet. He watched her stumble, grasping the wound on her leg. The shock visible even on her concealed face seemed to reveal she knew what kind of snake had bitten her and what it would mean for her health. The Kamen Rider would admit that seeing the shock on the sick chick's face after seeing how brutally she beat her previous opponent.

"You know, cobras are pretty toxic!" OOO warned to the white Sekirei, stepping out into the street to face his opponent He didn't enter a fighting stance though. Once you know you've been bitten by a toxic snake, it tended of kill your desire to do anything else. "You can continue this fight, and risk spreading the venom faster or you can go get some help and have a chance at surviving. Your choice!"

The cloth-user was looking rather panicked at the moment. It was a universally known fact that cobras were pretty toxic animals, never mind what the one OOO had used could do. Her eyes kept darting between the purple Sekirei, OOO, and the bite on her thigh which was trailing blood. After a moment to consider it, she turned tail and leaped on top of a building and began making a run for the distance.

"Smart choice," OOO nodded to himself. Once again he silently thanked his suit on granting him the instinctual knowledge of how to fight. He wouldn't have been able to pull out a win if it didn't. Surprise and the right attacks were the only reason he could stand up to that Sekirei at all, much less successfully use a trick that could win.

After watching the skyline to make sure that the Sekirei in white was gone, OOO turned to see where the purple Sekirei was. Fortunately, she was right where he left her. She was still bleeding and still laying on the ground. Either the injuries were keeping her down or she was simply too stunned to do anything but watch for the time being. He just hoped it was the latter rather than the former. Walking over to her, OOO saw her stare stay riveted on him.

Was she blushing on top of that?

"Are you okay?" he asked plainly.

"Uh...Ah!" the girl gasped, as if coming out of a trance but then her face turned even more rosy. "Uh..y-yes. I'm okay."

"You don't look it," OOO replied, commenting on the blood trailing from her lips, her torn clothes, scrapes, and the bruises forming on her body. "I've got something that might be able to help with that if you don't mind being a little close."

"Not at all!" the purple Sekirei gasped, looking almost...eager.

OOO ignored her eagerness and lifted her up by her arms before wrapping his arms around the Sekirei. The girl gasped and clutched him tightly, almost as if she were embracing him like a lover but the Kamen Rider ignored it in favour of activating his combo's special ability. As one, the orange panels of his armour lit up before the light bathed over himself and the girl in his arms. As an added ability for using the BuraKaWani Combo, it gave OOO access to what was called the Souma Venom which contrary to its name held strong healing properties. Normally it only worked on OOO himself, but the wielder had suspected that it would also work on anybody who was in physical contact with him while BuraKaWani was in use. The purple Sekirei certainly felt it as her cuts and scrapes closed while her bruises slowly vanished. Even the cuts in her mouth vanished after a short time, leaving her blood stains and torn clothes the only indicators that she had been in any kind of battle.

Sure the healing was finished by the light in his armour dimming; OOO let the purple Sekirei go. She gave off a little moan of disappointment, but he didn't take notice of the noise or if he did he merely categorized it as some lingering pain from the wounds themselves, "There you go. Good as new once you get a bath and some new clothes." Turning, he gave a small wave, "See ya. Try not to get into such one-sided fights anymore."

OOO would have went to collect his bag, strip his armour, and hopefully not pass out from exhaustion, but his short trek was abruptly ended when something snagged his arm, wrapping around it tightly, "Huh?" Looking back, he spotted the purple Sekirei holding his limb tightly in her grip, looking up at him with a dreamy smile, "Hey!"

"I've...found you," she said softly, a blush on her cheeks and seemingly ignorant of OOO's cry of agitation. "My Ashikabi."

OOO blinked behind his helmet, his purple eyepieces trained on the Sekirei. Ashikabi: the word used to describe the human partners of a Sekirei. The ones who could unlock a Sekirei's full potential. They were the humans who would allow themselves and their Sekirei partner to compete in the Sekirei Plan. The position would be an opportunity to try and make your wildest wishes come true and ascend to the sky above. OOO was now being presented with the opportunity to join their ranks in the upcoming battles to seize his destiny and rise up above the masses. Most people would see it as a golden opportunity that only an idiot would miss, and that was with just the fact that a hot woman for all intents and purposes was all but begging you to go out with her.

OOO was silent before his mind made a decision.

'_Oh...Hell No._'

This was the type of thing he was trying to avoid from the start! Getting involved with Sekirei as they attacked him was one thing, but when one of them started to try and get him involved in their sandbox war that was just something he couldn't deal with. Becoming an Ashikabi would do more harm than good for him as it would put him under MBI's radar, and he had enough trouble trying to avoid Higa and Mikogami. If he joined the Sekirei Plan they would have all the more reason to go after him. He also did not want a third party like MBI watching his every move and considering their past actions concerning the Sekirei they would likely try to pull something on him because of his abilities thanks to the Core Medals. He had been trying to keep off everyone's radar and he couldn't do that if he had one huge beacon for them all was clinging to him! He had to stop this before it went any further!

"I'm not your Ashikabi!" OOO cried out as he struggled to break free. "Now leggo!"

The dreamy look on the alien girl's face promptly vanished to be replaced by a startled one, "What? But…but…you are my Ashikabi!" the purple Sekirei cried out still clinging tightly. If anything, her grip had become that much tighter. "I could feel it! All of the signs were there! We're meant for each other, forever and ever!"

"I don't want a Sekirei!" OOO argued back, pulling his arm. He cursed mentally at the female alien's strength allowing her to keep up with his own Core Medal fuelled power. "Go find someone else!"

"Don't say that! Please! I can be a good Sekirei!" the girl insisted, her startled look now melting into one that looked like a fair bit of heartbreak mixed in together with growing desperation. "I can fight next to you! I can cook! I can take care of your every need! I even put out!"

"I SAID NO!" OOO shouted back, breaking his arm free from the Sekirei's grip with one sharp tug. The purple Sekirei stumbled back slightly, losing her footing from not having something to pull on so suddenly. It was an opportunity that the Kamen Rider was quick to pick up on. He quickly ran for his things and pulled out his Medal Book, grabbing one of the yellow Medals. Ignoring the approaching purple Sekirei and her cries to wait, OOO slotted the yellow Medal in place of the Wani Medal before scanning it.

"**KOBURA!**"

"**KAME!**"

"**CHEETAH!**"

Three crests appeared and formed together before fusing with OOO, replacing the lower section of the orange crest with a yellow cheetah. His legs likewise were replaced with yellow sections of amour which ended in silver boots with vents at the back. Change complete, OOO grabbed his bag before he took off running. With his new legs though, he sped down the street in an orange and yellow blur, leaving the purple Sekirei behind.

"Ashikabi-sama..." the Sekirei gasped, coming to a stop. She could only stare at where her Ashikabi had run off, her eyes growing misty as the full impact of what had happened fell on her. Tears began falling from her eyes, outdone only by the growing hurt that appeared next to those tears. She then dropped to her knees, looking into the distance with heartbreak pouring from her eyes just as much as her tears, "Why did you run away?" Her mind a blur of hurt, sadness, and heartbreak, the purple Sekirei dropped her face into her hands and began to sob.

* * *

Standing on top of one of the buildings overlooking the battlefield that had used to be a simple street was an unusual man. He was obviously handsome, but the cloth mask covering his features from the nose down kept them hidden. His hair was a startling shade of silver despite his youthful looks. He wore a black trench coat over further black clothes. What was odd about him though was the lingering embers which were swirling around his hand as if he had just ended a possible attack.

His name was Homura, also known as Sekirei Number 06.

Homura was very different from his fellow Sekirei, aside from being one of the few male ones that is. As a single digit, his power was somewhat greater than most of the other Sekirei which in the little competition they found themselves in meant he had an advantage. Rather than take part in the competition though, he instead pledged himself to protect his fellow birds until the time that they all had their destined Ashikabis. Most times he was successful and protected the lost birds, but other times he failed utterly and saw as an unwinged Sekirei was forced with an Ashikabi they didn't want or were terminated before even having a chance at finding them.

He had been heading back from protecting a Sekirei called Kaho from the Lightning Twins when he heard the sounds of battle off to the side. Moving quickly, he happened upon the battle between the Veiled Sekirei and Number 72: Natsu. He knew that Natsu was unwinged so he had conjured some of his fire to protect her and get her away before the Veiled Sekirei could take her down. His plan of action was interrupted though when the man in the orange and black armour appeared and rescued Natsu himself. Now intrigued, Homura kept his fireball made just in case things went south but he decided to watch rather than act.

The battle was short, as most battles were, but the armoured man pulled out a win by bringing out that weird cobra from his helmet and having it bite the Veiled Sekirei. Before that, the battle looked like it may have gone either way. The man was able to block just about any attack that the Veiled Sekirei threw at him and his kicks were actually capable of shredding the cloth which his opponent used to attack with. Of course, the Veiled Sekirei had gotten wise and began using attacks that would go around the shields to strike her opponent so the edge wasn't entirely on him. The shocking part was when the man somehow brought a giant cobra out of his head to attack the Veiled Sekirei. How that happened, Homura wasn't even going to try and explain.

Homura didn't doubt that the Veiled Sekirei would recover from the cobra bite. MBI medical facilities were neutral and would treat any Sekirei that was grievously injured. She'd be back soon enough and he'd have to keep an eye out for her if she kept going after unwinged Sekirei.

He then observed what the armoured man did next, his armour somehow actually _healing_ the damage that the Veiled Seirei had done to Natsu. After it was finished, the man seemed to intend to just wave, say goodbye, and head on his way. It was a standard procedure Homura himself did after he saved a Sekirei from danger. Natsu it seemed had other ideas when she latched onto his arm and tried to keep him in place. It brought a smile to Homura's face when he saw the blush on Natsu's features. The armoured man was her Ashikabi it seemed. That was good. It would be a hell of an advantage to her in the battles to come.

Rather than see a winging and speaking of an oath, much to Homura's shock he instead saw the armoured man actually shrug Natsu off and head towards a bag. Natsu tried to get him to stop and listen to reason but he swapped out his orange legs for yellow ones before he was gone, literally like a speeding bullet. Natsu was left behind, crying her eyes out at how her intended Ashikabi had refused her and then run, not giving her the chance to try and plead her case and profess her feelings.

The Fire-type Sekirei could only feel a surge of pity towards the crying Weapon-Type. If there was anything more cruel to a Sekirei than being forced to wing to someone else, being taken away from their Ashikabi, or not meeting them at all, it had to be actually finding their Ashikabi but being refused to be given their crest and love. Homura didn't expect humans to really understand the depth of the Ashikabi role to a Sekirei when they first met their future partners but to see someone refuse it so quickly especially when they themselves were so unusual without waiting for an explanation was downright shocking.

Sighing, he dispelled his embers and simply watched as Natsu continued to cry, "I guess you'll be without wings a little while longer."

The sounds of Natsu's sobs were of little comfort.

Dammit, he hated his job sometimes.

* * *

A far distance away, OOO skidded to a halt at long last. Panting, he grabbed his O-Driver and removed it, allowing his armour to vanish. To his pleasant surprise, other than being short on breath from running for a while he felt perfectly fine. Whatever was forcing Eiji Hino to become so exhausted whenever he used a Full Combo hadn't seemed to apply to Matthew this time. He would have pondered it, but his mind was on other things.

"I got away..." he uttered, relieved to not having been dragged into the Sekirei Plan. Hefting his bag over his shoulder, he looked for a decent place to sit down and ended up finding a bus station bench. Plopping down on it, he hefted a sigh before rubbing the bridge of his nose. So far his day was not looking all that well. First he got jumped by Mikogami's girls for the Core Medals again, then he got in the middle of a Sekirei brawl which his conscience would not let him leave alone, and he almost got dragged into the Sekirei Plan entirely when the Sekirei he saved tried to get him to become her Ashikabi.

'_Some days, it's just not right to get out of bed,_' Matthew thought to himself

Thinking about the battle and the aftermath unfortunately brought back the image of that Sekirei who'd pleaded with him so desperately to become her Ashikabi. She had grabbed his arm rather tightly, making it feel like were it not for his suit he may have lost feeling in it. She looked so shocked when he turned her down and afterwards started looking downright desperate. Amongst all of the pleading and desperate cries though it seemed like she was actually _hurt_ by his rejection, like saying no to her pleas of becoming her Ashikabi had caused her physical pain. After that was her pleading which didn't make her rejection face any easier to ignore…

"_Please! I can be a good Sekirei! I can fight next to you! I can cook! I can take care of your every need! I even put out!"_

Matthew smacked his hand across his face. No! He needed to just forget her and move on. Nothing good could come from a partnership with a Sekirei and he was better off without one, even if she was quite beautiful. She should find a nice, normal Ashikabi that would be more than grateful to have her. He had no interest in the Sekirei Plan or whatever bullshit prize the nutjob behind it all offered to the people who were taking part. He had seen enough suspicious tournaments in anime to know that the prize was likely just a fib the guy in charge offered so he could use something the combatants had. Secret tournaments like this were never on the up and up. Besides, there were probably a lot of guys out there who were compatible with her and more willing to take up the fight.

Still...he hated having to make a girl sad like that.

No, he shouldn't feel guilty about something like this. She could take care of herself.

She didn't need him.

* * *

**Ten-Faced Paladin: And we see more trouble that MacGregor can get himself into aside from hanging out with Louise. Like with my other fics, love it if you want to see it continue with reviews or leave it.**


	21. ShinkenSilver

I don't have a working title for this idea just yet, but with how long it is I figured letting people see it couldn't hurt. It works along the same idea as my TimeBlack idea so I hope those who enjoyed it enjoy this one. Kudos to Archangel Igneel for editing.

* * *

Takeru Shiba was a man of opposites. He lived traditionally, but he never stopped himself from enjoying modern conveniences when they became available. He walked the path of a lord, which he was, but didn't treat those below him like they truly were below him. He kept a cool and aloof façade most of the time, but his heart was warm and encompassed all things. Which showed as he interacted with those around him. Despite his youth, he acted like an older man since he didn't have much company as a child and didn't often get to enjoy the fact that he was a child. His responsibilities were too much of a burden to forget; even for a little while.

Takeru was the eighteenth generation heir of the Shiba clan who were charged by the Emperor of Japan to protect it from the menace known as the Gedoushu. Gedoushu were beings who lived on the Sanzu River, demons born in its depths who wished to cause human suffering so that the Sanzu River would flood the world, allowing them to conquer both worlds. Takeru and his vassals Ryunosuke, Mako, Chiaki, and Kotoha were the eighteenth generation of the Samurai Sentai Shinkenger who protected the mortal world from the attacks and schemes of the Gedoushu. However, to assist them was Takeru's old friend Genta who had managed to become his own Shinkenger using the traditional arts of Mojikara in an electronic process. Something that was unheard of in the history of the Shiba family, but the results of his genius couldn't be ignored as the Shinkengers went from five to six members strong.

At this point in time, Takeru was inside the family archives room in the traditional Shiba home. Since his parents both died in the assault made by the Gedoushu leader Doukoku Chimatsuri, Takeru didn't have much of a parental influence in his life. To compensate, he often went to the archives room to learn about his ancestors and feel at least a little closer to them in some way. Not that his guardian Hikoma Kusakabe and his vassals weren't family in his eyes, but people in Takeru's situation couldn't help but want to know their biological families. Being such a close family with good record keepers allowed Takeru to learn about all the members of his family and their exploits since the first leader of the Shinkengers, Retsudou Shiba.

Removing scrolls from the sixteenth generation of Shinkengers and the people his grandfather led, Takeru opened them to read about the adventures his grandfather had led against the Gedoushu. Looking over the scrolls where he left off, he continued on. He hadn't had a chance to finish looking over his grandfather's exploits since the Gedoushou had returned as he was in the middle of it and he hadn't been able to get back to it until now. Still, he was able to recall where he left off and continue on. Rolling over a new section of scroll, he spotted the five kanji representing the five Shinkengers since their creation. Fire, Water, Sky, Wood, and Wind. Takeru was the Samurai of Fire as his father and grandfather before him and he felt pride at holding the title. His only hope was that he could hold it as honorably as his ancestors did.

"Hm?" Takeru blinked when he saw the circle of kanji which represented the sixteenth generation Shinkengers. The symbol of fire was in the centre as expected, but the remaining four symbols were placed strangely. Usually they were placed in a square formation with the four symbols acting as the corners as he saw in the scrolls of his father's time. However, the symbols were placed differently like the corners of a pentagon. The bottom left corner was missing between the symbols for sky and wood. Peering closer at the spot, Takeru noticed that something was indeed there, but age had actually caused the dust to turn into a crust which covered the symbol. Even worse, dust was made up of fibers from the scrolls so it matched the color of the scroll itself almost perfectly. Gently picking at the crust, the material fell away easily revealing what was underneath.

The symbol of Metal.

"A Samurai of…Metal?" Takeru asked himself with widening eyes.

Quickly putting down the scrolls, Takeru turned to the other older scrolls he had read through growing up. Why hadn't he heard of a Samurai of Metal before? If there was another Shinkenger out there, why hadn't he known about them? Why hadn't that samurai heeded the call when the Gedoushu began to reappear? He poured over all of the older generation texts searching for mention of a Samurai of Metal. There had to be something and indeed he quickly found it. In each history, the focus was usually centered on the Shiba leading that generation of Shinkengers as most likely the histories kept by the archives of his retainers focused on the individual vassals as well. However, in the Shiba Clan's case, the vassals were only mentioned in passing and never by name or color, just as a nebulous group more often than not.

Digging deeply into the first generation scrolls, Takeru discovered that his suspicions were correct. There was indeed a Samurai of Metal who was assisting his family in fighting the Gedoushu. The references to the vassals were vague, only found back in the first generation of Shinkengers, but it was easily missed. It mentioned the Shinkengers each as a master of a weapon. ShinkenBlue was a master archer, ShinkenGreen was a master spearman, ShinkenYellow was a master markswoman, ShinkenPink was a master of hidden weapons like a battle fan. The last one was marked as a master of all weapons, but in the past Takeru had assumed it meant his ancestor. Now he was proven wrong in light of his discovery. The passage didn't describe all of the Shinkengers, merely the first Shiba's vassals and their skills.

"Jii!" Takeru called out to his guardian and mentor.

In a matter of moments, Hikoma Kusakabe came dashing into the room. He was a man in his middle ages and had raised Takeru since his father fell sealing Doukoku Chimatsuri. The man was as trustworthy as they came and knowledgeable in all things relating to the Shinkengers abilities and practices. Now that knowledge would be put to the test in light of Takeru's discovery.

"Tono-sama, what is it?" Hikoma asked worriedly. Rarely hearing his charge shout for anything his whole life, hearing his shout usually meant something big was happening.

"I found something. Come look," Takeru explained, bringing his mentor over to the scrolls he had been examining.

What they would find would rock the world of the Shinkengers.

* * *

Ranma Saotome yawned as he walked home from school alone that day. It wasn't too much of a new thing for him especially since he usually walked home with his first arranged fiancée Akane Tendo who he had gotten mad at him for some unknown reason and thus she decided to walk home without him in her huff. Today her loss of temper was because Ukyo and Shampoo had dropped by to give him food where they found him sleeping in a tree. Because of a dream he was having involving weird monsters with people dressed in colorful outfits, he was expressing the odd groan as he felt his dream self get hit once or twice. Of course Akane assumed he was having a perverted dream and proceeded to get steamed over it and attempt to hit him. Then Shampoo and Ukyo showed up and when Akane shrieked why Ranma was being 'perverted' today, both girls assumed he was dreaming about them and proceeded to try and cuddle up with him but they just broke into a fight with each other over who had the right to do that. Akane used the distraction to bean Ranma out of the tree with a large rock, waking him up. When Akane accused him of being perverted while Ukyo and Shampoo demanded to know which of them he was dreaming of, Ranma denied any perverted dreams which just got all three mad and another fight broke out.

Ranma was feeling a little tense to say the least.

'I was taking a freaking nap!' Ranma mentally growled to himself. 'I wasn't doing anything and they still find a freaking reason to fight over me like a piece of meat!'

The days since the failed wedding had been…tense. Things were okay for a while, but the Fiancée Brigade were getting downright desperate to marry him and it seemed they stopped making the distinction between walking down the isle with him or dragging him there kicking and screaming so long as he ended up with a ring on his finger that matched theirs. Shampoo tried no less than three different tricks and/or unusual spices to try and make Ranma fall in love with her by force…in one week. Ukyo had been going on and on, lamenting about her lost childhood and how her fiancée abandoned her almost every time he stopped for something to eat...and the less said about Kodachi the better.

The rivals were attacking more often, but Ranma found that more comforting than anything. He could beat them all easily and it made for a great workout. More than that, it was familiar ground. It was a rut he was sort of comfortable with. Rivals get mad, hunt for Ranma, he kicks their butts, his day continues. It was familiar, it was comforting, and it all was completely logical in his mind. The rivals had genuine reasons to be mad. They were easy to understand and when they weren't trying to kill him, pretty okay guys to talk to…well, except for Kuno. He was just plain nuts regardless if he was upset or not. Now the fiancées, they were a whole different story. They were always scheming something or just ticked off at him for some reason, and rather than just coming out and saying it, they made Ranma play a guessing game about it and demand he apologize for something and then get even more ticked off when he guessed wrong.

At least other aspects of life in Nerima seemed to be getting better. The local people seemed to support Ranma and his bids for some measure of peace. He didn't have to 'cute' vendors into giving him free treats in his girl form anymore. They gave it to him in thanks for keeping the Wrecking Crew from destroying their shops and stalls. The other students at Furinkan had also been giving him a break. After over a year of seeing his exploits, the students had long since stopped believing Akane's rants about what a pervert he was and decided to believe their own eyes for a change rather than listening to Nabiki's propaganda or Akane shrieking at the top of her lungs when she got mad.

And Akane wondered how rumors concerning her got started up.

Scratching the back of his head and checking the almost vanished bump which Akane had placed when she threw that rock at him, Ranma spotted the Tendo Dojo up ahead. Seeing it just reminded how the situation was going there. Despite saying that the wedding should wait until their personal affairs were in order, Soun and Genma were furiously scheming to try and get Ranma married to Akane as soon as possible come hell or high water. Sometimes he wondered if the two men were really all there in the head since they kept forgetting how reality, and love for that matter, worked since they kept proclaiming how much Akane and Ranma loved each other and that they should hold the wedding right away despite evidence to the contrary.

Nabiki was still extorting his money through whatever means she could by billing him about what happened to the dojo at the failed wedding, but Ranma miraculously managed to outmaneuver her on that one. A while back, Ranma's mother had given him a pillbox which for some strange reason, looked like a wedding ring in a velvet case. Once Nabiki heard he had it, she immediately charged the fiancées and rivals money to let them know he had it. The fiancées then got in one of their usual brawls while chasing him trying to claim the ring as theirs, completely forgetting that Ranma had to willingly give it to them for it to be official. Ranma had managed to evade them by tossing a box of Band-Aids to his dad at his mother's house making the fiancées think it was the box, however in their usual frenzy to prove who was superior and thus deserved to be Ranma's wife, not to mention getting all worked up by how Nabiki spun the story, they actually destroyed the house completely before finding out the 'ring' wasn't there. Ranma held Nabiki personally responsible and she couldn't worm her way out of it since Ranma had kept the box a guarded secret and she had only discovered it by spying on him so the destroyed house was directly her fault. So, any damages she tried to charge Ranma for the dojo were deducted from the costs it would take to rebuild Nodoka's house. In a rare moment of insight, he even got the contractors who repaired the dojo to give him an extra invoice so he could see what it cost before Nabiki could try inflating the numbers so to manipulate him. It ticked Nabiki off when she first tried to get money for the dojo, but it didn't stop her from trying to extract money from Ranma in other ways.

Kasumi was as pleasant as always, never finding fault in anyone, but Ranma still felt bad about all the crazy stuff that kept happening to the house since he and his freeloading father showed up. To that end, Ranma tried to help out in a few ways. Usually he was able to keep the damage to the house to a minimum when the rivals tried to get the jump on him and he even convinced Shampoo that busting through walls simply because it was easier than walking to the door was not only rude, but it ticked him off as well. He never could understand why Shampoo always decided that simply breaking through walls was better than ringing the bell or knocking on the door. He could tell Kasumi appreciated it too since she kept giving him larger portions than usual at meal times.

His mother was a different story. She had been acting weird lately and not out of her usual 'manliness' and 'get together with as many girls as you can' trips either. She was looking decidedly nervous about something and it seemed to be bothering her. She kept looking at her sword and Ranma was hoping that she wasn't considering the Seppuku idea simply because he hadn't made her a grandmother or because the girls seemed so upset with him for their various reasons. Steeling his courage, he once tried to ask her what was the problem, but before she could answer Akane had interrupted and force fed him something she made, sending him to the hospital to get his stomach pumped…again. Yet somehow, even with the medical evidence backing it up, Akane still thought he was making fun of her. So Ranma was left trying to muster up his courage to ask his mother what was wrong and hope no one decided to interrupt again.

* * *

"EEEEH?! You mean I'm the seventh Shinkenger?!" Genta Umemori gasped out in shock.

After Hikoma and Takeru made and confirmed their discovery, they had called all of Takeru's vassals into the meeting hall to explain the situation. In attendance were Ryunosuke Ikenami, a former kabuki actor and easily the most loyal and dedicated of all of Takeru's vassals. Next was Mako Shiraishi, a former kindergarten teacher who had grand dreams of becoming a wife…even if her cooking skills weren't up to snuff. Then there was Chiaki Tani, a high school student who had a good mind for strategy, but his battle training was a little lacking. Next was Kotoha Hanaori, whose family ran a bamboo shop and was somewhat sheltered from many things in the world. Finally there was Genta Umemori, an excitable and energetic sushi vendor who had been Takeru's best friend growing up and still considered himself as such.

"It seems that since the first Shinkengers eighteen generations ago, there has been a Samurai of Metal who has fought alongside the Shiba Clan and the vassals," Hikoma explained, revealing the scrolls which mentioned the elusive samurai.

"Then why didn't they heed the call?" asked Ryunosuke. "As a samurai and a vassal they should have come with the rest of us when Tono-sama called for us!"

"There may not be a Samurai of Metal anymore," Takeru replied to his vassal. "I recall the previous generation of Shinkengers when I was young and I only ever recall seeing five of them."

"Indeed," Hikoma nodded. "It seems the last Samurai of Metal existed in Tono-sama's grandfather's time. There hasn't been another one since then."

"You don't think something happened to that family do you?" asked Mako with worry.

"I have asked the Kuroko to retrieve records of that clan so we may discern just what is fact and what is rumor," Takeru replied. "If there is a seventh Shinkenger out there, we will need to find them. Everyone connected to this battle against the Gedoushu must give support."

The conversation halted when a Kuroko entered the room and produced a set of scrolls with the name Himura written on it. Takeru nodded his thanks and took the scroll before opening it for everyone to read. The group read over the list of births, marriages, and names trying to find the modern dates. The scroll was long so it took a couple of moments to find the right dates after a long winding chain throughout the ages. Since these weren't official clan scrolls, it only listed birthdates, death dates, and marriages, however for the sake of keeping track of vassals for the Shiba Clan, it was enough.

"Here!" Chiaki cried, pointing to a name. "Keiichi Himura. This is the last guy who had the title of the Samurai of Metal. The dates are right for our grandparents' time as Shinkengers."

"He had a son too, Daisuke Himura." Kotoha pointed out. "But the death date…"

"He apparently died before Tono-sama's father called for his vassals so there was no Samurai of Metal to take the mantle." Hikoma frowned.

"But what's this smudge below the son's name?" asked Ryunosuke.

"Well, it says that Daisuke-san got married before he died, perhaps it's the name of his child?" suggested Mako.

"Then why is the name partially erased?" asked Takeru. "There might be a story behind this." He then looked to his guardian. "Jii, try to find us a way to get in contact with Daisuke-san's wife if she is still alive. We must find out about her child and if there is anyone who can still take the mantle of the Samurai of Metal."

"Of course Tono-sama," Hikoma nodded as he immediately set off to find some Kuroko to assist him in this task.

"A seventh Shinkenger," Genta pondered. "I wonder who they might be?"

* * *

"Achoo!" Ranma sneezed as he walked onto the Tendo Dojo property. "Man, either I'm getting a cold or someone's talking about me. That's the seventh straight sneeze. Eh, probably the fiancées plotting to get me again." Ranma shrugged off the odd thought as he headed for the front door, wondering if today he would get the courage to ask his mother what had been bothering her so much lately.

Unbeknownst to Ranma, the reason Nodoka was anxious was because she had received a letter. It had come to her when a Kuroko, the black-clad servants of the Shiba clan had appeared and delivered it to her before vanishing. They were like ninjas, which technically they were. They were silent and efficient. Curious as to what the strange man had wanted, she had opened the letter and gasped when she read what was within it. The contents had been bothering her ever since.

"The Shiba clan…" She let out in a hushed tone just as her manly son announced he had come home.

"Yo, mom!" A boisterous voice called.

"Oh, hello my son," Nodoka greeted. She tried not to let her nervousness show, but it wasn't enough to fool Ranma's eyes. He could tell that something was bothering his mother, but thanks to Genma's conditioning concerning her, he was more than a little hesitant in doing anything around her lest she consider it unmanly and get the Seppuku idea stuck in her head again. So, he was still attempting to get his courage together to ask her something about what was bothering her.

Still, recently Ranma had likewise found that his mother wasn't pressing as hard for Ranma to get married or take on mistresses like she used to. Not that he didn't enjoy the peace, but Nodoka was usually always going on about being manly and making some grandkids for her to spoil. It definitely didn't make the other fiancées happy when they tried to plead their case to her to try and get Ranma to pay more attention to them. She just casually denied them and sent them on their way. For Ranma, he knew something was wrong since Nodoka usually never missed the chance to help him become manlier or increase her chances of becoming a grandmother.

"Hello Ranma," Kasumi greeted warmly, walking to the front hallway. "How was your day?"

"Pretty good," Ranma shrugged. "Woulda been better if all those ninja's didn't keep hanging around watching me all day."

"Ninja's?" asked Kasumi and Nodoka.

"Yeah, these guys dressed in black with veils covering their faces," Ranma explained as he got his indoor slippers on. "There've been three of them at school all day and two more following me home and I think there's one or two of them hanging around the property. Didn't feel anything aggressive coming from them so they probably aren't going to be a pain in the neck, but they just bug me."

"Oh my." Kasumi commented softly.

'They're here!' Nodoka realized. The Shiba Clan's Kuroko staff had come to observe Ranma. Usually, people paid them little mind. In Nerima, weird things happened often so men clad in black were not the strangest thing to appear.

"Well, as long as they don't attack me, I don't care," said Ranma. "I just hope they aren't working for some new martial artist who's coming to challenge me. I'm fed up with fighting."

"You? The martial arts jock? Fed up with fighting?" asked the usual I-know-everything voice of Nabiki from the living room. "The world must be ending."

"I love martial arts, but I am so fed up with fighting for stupid reasons," Ranma sighed, sending a neutral stare into the living room. "Half the people who come at me are after me because of something Pop did and he shifts the blame to me or something the rivals and fiancées somehow figure is my fault even though I wasn't even there or had anything to do with it, yet it's somehow my fault it happened. Challengers are okay since they just want to test themselves and stuff, but…I'm just sick of fighting for no good reason."

'You may get a good reason if what the letter I received is true,' Nodoka thought to herself.

* * *

"I have found out the name of Daisuke-san's child," Hikoma announced as he returned to the meeting room with a Kuroko holding a pile of papers. "According to the official documents, Daisuke-san had a daughter named Nodoka."

"So they did have a child! That's great!" Ryunosuke smiled. "But if he did have a daughter, why wasn't she summoned like the rest of us?"

"I had asked Daisuke-san's wife that same question," Hikoma replied as he took his traditional seat. "She was ashamed to admit it, but her daughter had married someone she didn't approve of. A man named Genma Saotome. He was hardly what she considered a worthy husband but Nodoka insisted even though there was much evidence to prove he was a dishonorable fool." The Kuroko dropped the stack of papers, the first labeling the rep sheet of one Genma Saotome and his crimes. It made up for a good portion of the papers, if not all of them.

"Then why marry such a man?" asked Kotoha. "Couldn't she see how bad he is?"

"Apparently Nodoka-san has some twisted ideas about what she found attractive in men," Hikoma sighed. "I had asked if Nodoka had any children, but as far as Himura-dono knew, she didn't. However, Nodoka-san has not communicated with her mother for many years so perhaps she was not told about any children. Incidentally, several incidents with Genma Saotome has reported a small boy in his company possibly his child. Still, Nodoka-san has not been found with either of them so we do not know if the child is hers. We managed to track all three of them down into the Nerima district. I already have several Kuroko monitoring them and have sent a letter to Nodoka-san explaining the situation."

"I see," Takeru nodded. "Then we should go speak to Nodoka-san and find out just why her son, if she has one, had not heeded the call when it went out."

"Then let's get going!" Genta cheered. "I want to see this new Shinkenger!"

"Ikuzo!" Takeru nodded, standing up and heading out of the room, his vassals close behind.

* * *

"Okay, these guys in black are starting to tick me off. Just what do they want?" asked Ranma just stood there, watching Kuroko duck behind the property wall again, noticing that they had gotten caught again.

The Tendo Dojo was at peace for the moment. Genma and Soun were out drinking again, something about celebrating the impending marriage with their children. Nabiki was calculating numbers again while Akane was out with friends. He was beginning to think that Akane was trying to avoid the house as much as possible so she could be a normal girl for at least a little while. Kasumi was getting the dishes done. At the moment, Ranma was trying to relax while keeping an eye on the guys dressed in black lest they try something funny.

"The Kuroko don't mean any harm Ranma," Nodoka spoke to her son from her cup of tea. "If I had to hazard a guess, it's because Tono-sama heard I was here and sent them to learn about my situation. I suppose it's only natural."

"Tono-sama?" asked Ranma. "Mom, who are you talking about?"

"Takeru Shiba-sama of course," Nodoka answered, blinking curiously at Ranma. "You should at least remember his name already. I'm sure he would have been brought up in your training."

"Never heard of him," Ranma answered, causing Nodoka to blink in greater confusion.

"Ranma, you must have. Why else were you on that training trip?" asked Nodoka, now becoming even more confused.

"To be the greatest martial artist and become a man amongst men." Ranma replied almost automatically.

"But surely you must have wondered what the other training was for," Nodoka frowned. "I mean, the swordsmanship training, the horseback training, the calligraphy training, the strategy training and all of the essential things. Haven't you ever wondered why you needed that sort of training as you were growing up?"

"Mnnn, Pop hated me even touching a sword so I had to learn from what I was able to see other masters use," Ranma shrugged, tugging on his pigtail as he tried to recall everything besides Genma's screw ups on the ten year voyage. "I never even got to touch a horse until we settled down in Nerima and that tea ceremony guy almost ran me over with one. Um, Pops said calligraphy was a waste of time so I never learned it and strategy I can do fine when I'm fighting."

"You…never…learned?" Nodoka gaped, her cup slipping from her fingers. Thankfully it was empty and didn't break when it hit the table. "But…but…but you must know your Mojikara, right?"

"Moji-what?" asked Ranma in confusion. "Is that some kind of technique Pops was holding out on me?"

"Surely you must have the Origami and Shodo Phone by now!" Nodoka all but pleaded, feeling her hopes plummeting as she saw her son's clueless face.

"What are those?" asked Ranma.

"GENNNMAAAAAAAA!" was Nodoka's enraged screech which caused Ranma to slip off of the back deck and onto the grass while the kuroko outside fell of their perches behind the wall. Ranma didn't bother climbing back up and instead peeked over the edge to see his mother seething with a dark aura surrounding her. No doubt about it, she was MAD! Way worse than anything he had seen Akane make when she lost her temper. Of course, Akane kept having her temper tantrums over moderate things (which most people would only feel mildly miffed about) while Nodoka seemed upset for some reason that was really important to her.

"Mom?" Ranma gulped.

"That…that…UUUUURRRRHH!" Nodoka snarled, clenching her fists. "He promised me that the training would take place! He told me to rest easy, that my son would get the knowledge he needed for his task. He said my ancestors would be honored! He said Ranma would be prepared for what was ahead! He said Ranma would bring my family out of its shame! He swore Ranma would be given his inheritance and told of his heritage! NNNNGH! I AM GOING TO KILL HIM!"

"Uh…Mom?" Ranma muttered weakly, desperately hoping that she wouldn't be reaching for her sword.

Nodoka's enraged gaze turned to her son and immediately softened, but she looked about ready to cry rather than her regular calmness, "Ranma…I'm so sorry. I…I thought Genma would tell you about your training. He promised to tell you about your family heritage and give you your inheritance when you were old enough. He swore an oath that he would give you the training you needed for the future. I…I don't know why he would deny you that. I…I…," Nodoka's sputtering began to dissolve into tears as she tried to hide her face.

"Mom? Mom, just calm down," Ranma spoke, heading over to his mother to try and help her however he could. "What heritage? What did Pop promise to do?"

"I –sniff- suppose that you need to know, more so than –sniff- ever now," Nodoka sniffled, trying to dry her eyes. Gesturing Ranma to take a seat, she heaved a shuddering sigh before beginning her story. "Well, Ranma, to begin, our family is descended from a very long line of samurai. At least eighteen generations of them to be exact. Our family acts as one of five vassal families to the Shiba Clan."

"Uh-huh," Ranma nodded, not liking the idea of bowing to anybody, but he let his mother continue her story. "Samurai. Right. You mean guys like Kuno?"

"Oh heavens no!" Nodoka gasped. "The Kuno family are merely low ranked compared to the likes of our family and the Shiba clan. Quite frankly, the reason that Kuno boy and his family love to lord their status and money over everyone is because I think no one in the old families really sees anything worth respecting anymore."

"I'd believe that," Ranma nodded. "So, the Shiba Clan?"

"Right. The Shiba Clan and its vassals have been charged by the emperor himself to combat against the forces called the Gedoushu," Nodoka explained. "I know this may be hard to believe, but the Gedoushu are in fact from the Sanzu River and have been trying to invade our world for a very long time. It is thanks to the actions of each generation of the Shiba family and their vassals which do combat against the Gedoushu and keep them at bay."

"And these Kuroko guys serve the Shiba Clan, right?" Ranma asked, pointing at the black clad figures who waved back, seeing as Nodoka was explaining the situation to her son. Monsters who come from the Sanzu River were perfectly within Ranma's range of belief, having fought (and beaten) Dragon Prince/ss's and (self-proclaimed) Phoenix God's in the past.

"Yes," Nodoka nodded. "Because of our duties as each Shiba head's vassals, each generation is trained in the samurai arts. Part of my stipulations in the contract your father and yourself signed is that you must be trained in the Himura family arts. I had given him scrolls so he could teach you everything you needed to know as a samurai and a vassal of Shiba-sama."

"Uhhh…I think Pop might have pawned those for drinking money," Ranma gulped. "I remember now and then he'd sell these scrolls I didn't remember him getting from the various dojos or shrines we'd visit."

"…He is SO lucky that those were merely copies," Nodoka growled. "It seems that despite threatening his life, Genma had done everything in his power to prevent you from learning the Himura Samurai Arts. Everything you would have needed to know was on those scrolls. It was my hope that you could undo the shame which my family unintentionally brought on itself in previous generations."

"Pops probably didn't like the idea of me kowtowing to anyone else but him," Ranma grumbled. "Not that I kowtow to him no matter how much he tries blubbering about honor or the schools or even about how he's my father and I have to respect him."

"Yes. The reason why I have been so off balance lately is because I have been hearing rumors that the Gedoushu have been active again yet you hadn't seemed to notice or even try to go investigate," Nodoka explained. "At first I was worried you either didn't know about the rumors or didn't care about them, but now I see you were purposefully kept ignorant of the family legacy and what you were born to become. I can guess Genma probably pawned off your Shodo Phone and the Uma Origami by now."

"Um…" Ranma frowned, trying to recall anything else that Genma probably tried to pawn off in the time making up their trip. Naturally, it was a pretty long list considering all of the places the man looted during their trip. Still, there was one thing that stood out if he remembered correctly. "Did those things come in an ornate box? One with metal on it and the kanji for 'metal' carved onto the lid?"

"Yes." Nodoka nodded.

"Right, Pops may still have it then," Ranma explained, hoping he was right. "He's tried pawning it off, but every time he tried, the pawnbrokers would take a look inside then turn really pale. Then they'd shove the box back in his arms and tell him to get out of the store. He'd bluster about customer loyalty or something and stuff the thing back in his pack. I was never allowed to touch it myself. He tried to sell it all the time but no one would buy it. The only reason I can think of why he didn't sell it in the street is because he figured he could get more out of the pawn shops."

Nodoka's eyes lit up with hope. "Is his pack here?"

"Up in the guest room," Ranma replied.

"Go fetch it. It's high time I give you what you were meant to inherit, my son," ordered Nodoka. "Then I'm going to have a long talk with that dishonorable father of yours."

"Alright," Ranma nodded. If this was a huge deal about his mom, he would do it. 'Sides, this was about his mom's side of the family and he had to admit that he had been curious about that side in the past. He had learned more than enough about his father's side when they visited the family grave shrine and found it was booby-trapped against thieves like his father. Add the fact that the supposed treasure it protected had already been pawned off painted a rather grim picture.

The story his mother had told him about being part of a samurai clan was somewhat unexpected, but not wholly surprising given his life. This whole deal of fighting demons was actually more of a good thing in his mind. Now he had a purpose. This could be the ticket he needed to get out of pointless fights and all the crap he'd endured in life. If you've been charged by the Emperor to fight demons then that takes precedent over any kind of responsibility your family laid out for you!

Practically leaping up the stairs, Ranma dashed into the guest room. Sure enough he found his father's pack in the closet. The man barely touched it these days save for when someone he was afraid of was coming to call, i.e. Happosai, Nodoka, various fiancées he set up for Ranma, etc, and he wanted to make a break for it to avoid responsibility and/or pain. Opening it, he dug through Genma's old gi and a few various trinkets he had probably stolen at some point and hadn't been able to sell yet. After digging to the bottom of the deceptively small bag, he found what he was looking for. An ornate box with polished oak which seemed a little scuffed from being jammed into a backpack with some slightly dirty metal from sweaty gi or bits of old food. It was still a beautiful piece of work with a kanji for 'metal' beautifully carved into the oak and set with metal.

"Here we go," Ranma smiled as he lifted the box out of the bag and exited the room. Heading back downstairs, he presented his mother with the box who smiled brightly.

"I see you weren't wrong," Nodoka sighed in relief. Taking the box and setting it on the table, she undid the locks on the front of the box before turning it to face her son. "Ranma, I am proud to present you with your birthright."

Opening the box, Nodoka slid the ornate box forward, allowing him to see inside. Curious, Ranma took a look. Inside, he saw an orange and black cell phone which almost looked like it could fold vertically as well as horizontally. Next to it was a silver disk with a hole in the centre and had several images of a horse running around the centre of the disk. Both were resting on top of a bundle of silk which gave both items an air of elegance and mysticism. The pair of items did look very cool and it made Ranma wonder why Genma wasn't able to sell them whenever he dropped by a pawn shop.

"Often everyone recognizes the treasures of the Shiba Clan and their vassals," Nodoka smiled as she gazed longingly at the two items. "Especially with the media able to spread word so quickly these days. I'd wager that's why your father was never able to sell them. The owners recognized them and feared that they were stolen and didn't want to be caught with them. Of course, Genma probably didn't consider them important beyond monetary value so I'd bet he never thought to find out why he was refused."

Ranma nodded, still admiring the items before he reached into the box and picked them up. He couldn't help but wonder how the two items were supposed to help him go against the Gedoushu, but in his life, things which looked harmless tended to have some pretty scary abilities more often than not. As he picked the items up, the silk began to move before something kicked its way out of the mess with a cute neighing noise. Looking down, Ranma blinked to see a mechanical silver horse looking up at him with curiosity. It seemed to be able to come apart, but Ranma likewise noticed something that looked like a horizontal spinning disk coming from its sides.

"Ah! Uma-chan!" Nodoka gasped in delight, reaching down and petting the tiny mechanical horse along its neck, making it neigh happily. "It's been so long!"

"Uh…what's that?" Ranma asked uncertainly, getting the small horse's attention turned back to him.

"This is Uma-chan Ranma," Nodoka introduced with a fond smile. "It is the Himura Family's personal Origami entrusted to us by the first Shiba Head as a sign of trust and comradeship towards his vassals. Origami are part of the Mojikara which the Shiba Clan and the vassals are able to produce, creating constructs known as Origami. Uma-chan has been in our family for years. Oooh! It's so good to see you again!"

The Uma Origami neighed happily as Nodoka continued stroking its neck. Ranma had to admit that the little horse was cute and probably easy enough to get along with. Unlike other pets he probably wouldn't have to feed the little thing. He'd have to keep it out of sight though. If Pop got wind of it he'd try to get rid of Uma-chan and Nabiki would most likely sell it to the highest bidder after blackmailing the martial artist out of the Origami first.

The small mechanical horse trotted over to Ranma and looked up at the pigtailed young man expectantly. Ranma reached over and ran his hand along the small horse's mane. The horse rubbed its head against Ranma's hand in response, pleased with the touch.

"He's cute, but I don't know how a little guy can help fight demons." said Ranma skeptically.

"Uma-chan's a girl." Nodoka corrected.

"Oh, sorry." Ranma apologized. The tiny horse gave a small neigh in response.

"The Origami are just one facet to the Mojikara which Shiba-sama and his vassals use," Nodoka explained. "If Genma hadn't decided his way of doing things was more important, you would have been taught about Mojikara and its many, many, uses. As it is now, you'll have to start from scratch."

"Hey, I can learn it in no time," Ranma grinned, earning an energetic neigh from the Uma Origami. "If I can learn high grade martial arts in at least a week, I can learn this Mojikara stuff!"

"A good attitude to have," Nodoka nodded with a smile. "You already have magnificent control over your internal energies so we may be able to skip that. However, calligraphy is a must when learning Mojikara. After all, it is the art of using kanji as a medium for your magic."

"Huh?"

As Nodoka began explaining the finer points of Mojikara to her son, Kasumi was handing cups of tea to the nice men in black who were watching over Auntie and Little Brother. She didn't want them to think they were inhospitable or rude after all. Besides, being out in the sun all day wearing black had to be tiring.

* * *

**The Sanzu River**

The Sanzu River was not a pleasant place by any stretch of the mind. The shores were littered with rocks; some forming piles and knock just one over, you'd be assaulted by the most populous residents, the Nanashi. The water itself was a blood red and even worse things lived in there, those being the Ayakashi, the tougher members of the Gedoushu and the ones whom the Shiba Clan did battle with most often. On the river itself sailed the Rokumon Junk, the ancient ship which carried the Gedoushu's most powerful members. The boat itself looked like the kind used by the Japanese in the ancient past, but looked old and worn with the sail in tatters. It never really sailed anywhere, it just drifted along.

Onboard the ship were some Gedoushu who were the ones spearheading operations into the mortal world, attempting to raise terror and despair so that the waters of the river would flood the mortal realm and allow them to invade. Sitting on one side of the boat with a saucer of sake made from the screams of humans was the leader of the Gedoushu, Doukoku Chimatsuri. He was a terrifying figure covered from head to toe in red and black armor/flesh and several yellow eyes on his skull-like face. Next to him was his broadsword which he never went without.

Looking out through some of the viewing holes in the side of the boat into the human world was a short squid-headed figure who seemed to be rather old and holding a gnarled staff. His eyes were glowing yellow in the low light and he seemed to be pondering something. His name was Shitari of the Bones and he was the Gedoushu's strategist, discovering ways to try and flood the Sanzu River so to speed up their impending invasion into the human world.

Pacing up and down the deck in an almost bored fashion was a new member to the small crew on the Rokumon Junk. He wore pale robes and had six slitted eyes and a large grin stuck on his face. In his hands was a folded metal blade which could be used as a weapon if he so desired. His name was Akumoro and he was a master of the black arts. Eighteen generations ago, he had fought the first Shinkengers, but the battle left him trapped at the bottom of the Sanzu River until a burst of power from Doukoku during his yearly power increase during the Bon festival in summer managed to set him free. In gratitude, he pledged his service to Doukoku, but no one really trusted him.

At the moment, the group was going about their usual routines. Shitari was reading through his archives of knowledge which included written works by the more intelligent Gedoushu of the past and books stolen from the Shiba house when Doukoku had attempted to invade the human world before the seventeenth head of the Shiba clan managed to seal him away, trapping him in the Sanzu River. Doukoku was indulging himself on his sake as a Nanashi refilled it for him whenever he finished his last saucer of the stuff. Akumoro finally ceased his pacing and just seemed to be sitting at the back of the boat's interior, looking out through the hole that Ayakashi would use to enter or exit the Rokumon Junk. Hanging from the ceiling were several yellow fur balls with big mouths and red eyes called Susukodama and had an annoying habit of repeating the last interesting sounds or words they heard tirelessly until they heard something else. Today, they were playing a soothing tone from a shamisen which seemed to soothe Doukoku's ever bubbling temper.

Shitari turned the page in one of his books, his eyes landing on a pentagon of symbols which the Shiba clan head had found himself not too long ago. His glowing eyes widening in shock, Shitari began to panic. "Oh no! This can't be! This is impossible!"

"Shitari," Doukoku growled from his seat, making the Nanashi shiver in fear. "What are you overreacting about this time?"

"I'm not overreacting! This is serious!" Shitari cried, waving the book in his hands around. "This book that we had stolen from the Shiba House during your attack says that there should have been six Shinkengers there to fight you!"

"So?" Growled Doukoku, slurping down more sake. "There are six Shikengers now, aren't there?"

"No! That idiot with the gold is not the sixth Shinkenger!" Shitari cried. "Doukoku-sama, this book says that there should be a Samurai of Metal working with the Shinkengers against us!"

"Ah, the silver one," Akumoro nodded with his ever present grin. "I remember him. He was fun. I was wondering why there wasn't a new generation Shinkenger for him."

"Hmph! We probably got lucky and that family died out or something!" Doukoku snorted.

"Not from what I can see," Akumoro chuckled as he peered into the human world. "The Shinkengers have found where their missing comrade is and are going to collect him."

"WHAT?!" Shitari cried, dashing over to the hole so he could see as fast as his stubby legs could take him. Peering through the hole and into a gap which connected the mortal world to the Sanzu River, he indeed saw the Shinkengers heading down a street and they were talking.

"So what do you think this Shinkenger is like Tono-sama?"

"I don't know. I've never met anyone from the Himura family."

"Do you think Nodoka-san had a child?"

"I hope so. Then we can have another cool Shinkenger join the team!"

"This is bad! We can't let them get the last Shinkenger!" Shitari cried as he hobbled back to his books, trying to find the name of the possible new Samurai of Metal or any clue where they might be found.

"Why not? I think this might be fun," Akumoro laughed.

"Of course you would," Shitari grumbled. Akumoro was probably the only one of their members who had a consecutive winning streak against the Shinkngers when he took them on himself rather than let one of his minions do the fighting for him. When he first met the Shikengers he was actually winning until he just came back claiming he got bored and left his kirigami to deal with them in his place. The paper construct was obviously destroyed, but Akumoro said he had fun so that was more important.

"Send an Ayakashi and the Nanashi!" ordered Doukoku, slamming his saucer down and standing up. "Six Shinkengers are already too troublesome! A seventh will just be more annoying!"

"I have just the Ayakashi," said Shitari, hobbling over to the side windows of the river. "Shukaku!"

"HAI!" Shukaku, an Ayakashi resembling a tanuki, appeared out of the river. Shaking the water from his fur, he stepped deeper into the ship to meet with his superiors. He had on a straw hat, a fat body and a fluffy tail. He also carried a large gourd which he could wield as a weapon. A sash was tied around his waist and he had heavy boots and gloves. "Reporting for duty!"

"We have a serious task for you," Shitari spoke, hobbling over to the Ayakashi. "There is supposedly a seventh Shinkenger by the name of Nodoka Himura somewhere in," Shitari pointed at the gap which gave a view of the human world. "This section of the human world. You are to find her, and ELIMINATE HER!"

"You've got it!" Shukaku laughed. "I'll leave her a dried out husk!"

"Oh, but if we send an Ayakashi, wouldn't the Shinkengers hear of it and attack?" asked Akumoro. "Then all of them would be together just the same."

"And what would you suggest?" asked Doukoku with a snarl.

"We divide and conquer of course," Akumoro chuckled as he turned his attention to the Sanzu River. "Wanyu! Are you down there?"

"Yes," A deep voice groaned back. Emerging from the water was another Ayakashi. This one's head was covered in burlap with one yellow eye sticking out of a hole. His neck was in the centre of a wagon wheel which had spikes on the edges. He wore robes which seemed similar to that of feudal lords, save for the dirt and rocks stuck to them. Smaller wagon wheels were attached to his ankles and elbows while his hands and feet were red armored flesh. "What do you want?"

"We need you to team up with Shukaku to distract the Shinkengers while searching for a human named Nodoka Himura," Akumoro explained. "We don't care how you do it, but she must die. Understand?"

"Ha! Easy! She'll be dead before sundown!" Wanyu laughed before he eyed Shukaku. "Let's go!"

"Yeah!" Shukaku nodded before both he and Wanyu dove out the back entrance of the Rokumon Junk and into the Sanzu River, heading for the human world.

"Now all we do is wait," Akumaru grinned.

"This had better work, for your sake!" Shitari hissed.

* * *

**Nerima**

Takeru and his vassals had entered Nerima and were a little confused as to the people. When Ryunosuke had asked for directions to the Tendo Dojo, a lot of people began sighing in long suffering, as if many people had wanted to know the same information. Other people began closing their windows and strengthening doors while giving the group a fair bit of space.

"Hmph!" Ryunosuke frowned. "These people are so disrespectful of you Tono-sama!"

"I don't think they even know who we are." Chiaki commented as no one gave them a second glance. Back in their usual stomping grounds, everyone knew who they were and offered proper respects. It felt a little odd to be ignored in their current lifestyles.

"Eh?" Genta gaped. "But I thought we were famous samurai!"

"Well, famous back home," Mako commented. "Since we hardly fight this far out, it's not surprising to find that some people haven't heard of us."

"Wait! Wait! Wait! How could anyone miss the super cool giant battles we go through?! Everyone in Tokyo could see those!" Genta cried.

"People acknowledge what they will," Takeru shrugged. He didn't really care if people found him famous or not. He had a task to do here and he intended to see it through. "Remember, we're here to find Nodoka and see if she had a child or not."

"Shampoo! My beloved!"

"EEK!"

The group turned quickly when they heard Kotoha's cry of terror. To their surprise, a teenage boy probably around Chiaki's age with long black hair and wearing Chinese robes was hugging her from behind and pressing his face into her back. While the young man seemed to be in romantic rapture, Kotoha was pale and trembling in fright. Being as softspoken as she was, she wasn't the type to lash out against people, but she was just too stunned to do much of anything.

"Hey! Get your hands off of her!" Chiaki cried, dashing to Kotoha's aid. Takeru and the others were right next to him. Takeru acted fasted by grabbing the boy's arms and pushing him away. Kotoha quickly clutched the back of her lord's shirt as she hid herself from the boy who had grabbed her.

"Saotome!" The Chinese boy spat, getting his balance back. "You dare keep Shampoo and I apart for your own twisted pleasures?! Prepare to die!"

"I'm not shampoo!" Kotoha cried out from behind Takeru as Mako tried to comfort her. "My name is Kotoha Hanaori!"

"Huh?" the Chinese boy blinked. Withdrawing his hand into one of his oversized sleeves, he produced a pair of glasses which had the thickest lenses that any of the group had ever seen. Placing the lenses over his eyes, the boy peered at them, apparently needing to squint even with the lenses on. "Oh. You aren't Shampoo. My mistake."

Bowing in apology, the boy turned and left, leaping over a fence and out of sight.

"…what is with the people here?" Ryonosuke blinked in shocked confusion.

"Wait, didn't he say Saotome?" asked Chiaki.

Silence reigned for a moment as the Shinkengers turned to where the Chinese boy had gone.

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Genta cried, giving chase after the myopic young man. "We need to ask you something!"

Ranma reeled from the revelation. Calligraphy! The focus of Mojikara was to use calligraphy as a weapon! Now he knew he was doomed. His penmanship wasn't all that good. Heck, even Ryoga was better at calligraphy than him. Genma never saw calligraphy as a useful art. Then again, the fat panda was a close-minded fool who though with his stomach. Still, Ranma would need to improve his calligraphy if he ever wanted to inherit the items his mom had shown him.

Well, there was no point in griping about it. He wanted in on fighting these Gedoushu jerks so he needed to learn this. His memory recalled back to the martial arts calligraphy incident. He knew all the characters or at least the ones he'd need for the situation, but making them look good was his actual problem.

"Well, you have the practical side down at least," Nodoka sighed, watching her son turn a paper into a mish-mash of paper and metal thanks to his messy kanji for metal. "But your handwriting is so messy it causes the kanji to be unstable and cause…this."

"Sorry," Ranma grimaced, clutching the brush. He was embarrassed, no doubt. He didn't like goofing up in front of his mother who was probably one of the few good things that had happened in his life.

"It's not your fault," Nodoka smiled reassuringly. "Now, it seems that you have the same problem with calligraphy that Akane-chan does with cooking. You both rush through the steps and end up causing numerous mistakes along the way."

"Ouch," Ranma frowned in mock pain. Being compared to Akane's cooking was not a good thing in any stretch of the mind. In fact, it was downright bad. "Okay, so what do I do about it?"

"The answer is simple," Nodoka replied. "You must remember that this is a discipline no different than meditation. You need a balance of concentration and thought to achieve the result. In short, this is an art form."

Meditation and concentration. That Ranma could understand. He had used lots of meditation to get his thoughts in order and it seemed like second nature to him. Taking that train of thought and running with it, he got a fresh sheet of paper and began again. Calming his mind and emptying it of all though, he pictured the kanji for metal which he was aiming for. Placing the brush against the paper, he took a cleansing breath before beginning his work.

'Slow and steady. This isn't a race. I am not competing with anyone. I am learning. I wish to make art. This isn't a race. I am not in competition…' he thought to himself as he made his brushstrokes across the paper. 'There is no one here but me and the paper.'

Finishing his last stroke, Ranma allowed himself to exit his meditative state. Looking down, he found himself looking at a rather nice kanji for metal on the paper. It didn't stay that way for long before the entire paper transformed into a sheet of steel.

"Excellent!" Nodoka beamed. "You see? A little patience and time can go a long way! Ooooh! I'm so proud of you Ranma!"

"Thanks Mom," Ranma smiled, honestly proud of his work, but happier that his mother was proud of it. It wasn't a side of her he often got to see. "OK, so, what's next?"

"Practice," Nodoka said. "You have to practice over and over again with the same kanji so you don't make an error in battle. A single brush stroke can be the difference between life and death, especially since you and Uma-chan are going to be fighting side-by-side."

Ranma nodded. He wasn't really expecting to go straight to the advance stuff just yet. Like martial arts this required strict discipline and patience. Still, he was always eager to learn the really cool stuff quickly and sometimes he could be impatient for it, one of his regrettably bad habits. Luckily his learning curve was really high when material was presented properly so he was able to get to the cool stuff quickly more often than not.

"Son, does your school have a Calligraphy Club? Maybe they can give you some pointers." Nodoka suggested.

Ranma frowned. He doubted the Calligraphy Club would accept him. They'd probably reject him for his chaotic reputation. "I guess…"

"It's best to look into it if Tono-sama doesn't arrive soon, if not today," Nodoka nodded. Looking to the supplies on hand, Nodoka saw that Ranma had drained their source of ink and most of the paper was now gone, now horrible fusions of metal and paper. "I think we should get some more supplies before we continue your training though."

"Right," Ranma grimaced as he stood up. "I'll get them. Some fresh air might do me some good." Nodoka quickly withdrew a purse she hid in her kimono and handed Ranma some Yen before he headed outside and leaped over the wall.

"Hurry back!" she called out, amused by how stunned the Kuroko were.

"OK, after we got that guy to stop cursing about Saotome, we finally got some directions," Chiaki sighed as he and Genta managed to get back with their friends. It had taken them some time to catch up to the Chinese boy and ask him about the Tendo Dojo. He then went off on a rant for a few minutes about a jerk of a womaniser who strung innocent girls along for his own games before he finally calmed down enough to actually give the directions the group had wanted. "Man, I wonder what this guy's like?"

"He didn't sound too nice from what the boy had to say." Ryunosuke pondered.

"Considering how we saw him act, I'm not too sure if we should believe him about Saotome," Mako commented. "At least we know Nodoka-san had a son though. He sounds to be around Chiaki's age."

"That Chinese guy didn't have anything nice to say about him though," Genta added. "I still wonder what this Ranma guy is like."

"We can't trust the words of someone who's so obviously biased against him," Takeru spoke. "The only thing that we can do is go to the Tendo Dojo and see Nodoka-san and see if this Ranma person is her son or not."

"I'm afraid you won't be getting that far."

The group instantly turned to the source of the voice and found themselves looking at an Ayakashi. It had wheels on its elbows, ankles, and one around its neck. The monster was calmly walking down the street with a spiked wheel in its hands, ready for a fight.

"You can call me Wanyu. I'll be your executioner today," The wheeled Ayakashi snickered. "You won't be finding the seventh Shinkenger while I have something to say about it!"

The six heroes stiffened slightly at the Ayakashi's mention of their missing teammate. Somehow, the Gedoushu knew about the seventh Shinkenger and aimed to stop him or her from joining the others. How they knew was anyone's guess, but it didn't change the fact that they knew. The situation had become a whole lot more serious now that the Gedoushu were getting involved. If Nodoka and any children she had were likely unable to transform like Takeru and the others could, then they would be sitting ducks for any attacks made by the Gedoushu.

"So, you're getting involved then." Takeru frowned.

"Yeah, I am!" Wanyu laughed. "Why not just make it easy on yourselves and die now so to save me the trouble?"

"Ha! As if the eighteenth head of the Shiba family and his vassals would go down so easily!" Ryunosuke laughed as he, Takeru and the others stood in a line against the Ayakshi. "Prepare to be defeated Gedoushu!"

"Shodo Phone!" Takeru and his vassals produced red cellphones which they pressed a button and what appeared to be a brush emerging from the top. Genta produced a white cellphone and a red disk which had sushi-like designs on it. "Sushi Changer!" Folding the disk at the sides, he placed it on his changer and presented it like a piece of sushi.

"Ippitsu Sojo!" five of the six cried, writing kanji in the air. Takeru: Fire, Ryunosuke: Water, Chiaki: Wood, Mako: Sky, and Kotoha: Earth

"Ikkan Kenjou!" Genta cried out, holding his phone out like it was a piece of sushi.

The kanji the five produced began to grow as Genta's phone produced a kanji for Light at the same time, allowing it to grow large. In a flash, the kanji enveloped them, leaving them covered in colored uniforms which matched the ink which their kanji had been written in. All of the uniforms looked like samurai robes at the top with gold belts and black pants (save for Genta's which were blue) and had a sword on the hip (again, save for Genta who had a fish shaped sword on the back). The only difference between the suits besides color was the visors for the helmets were shaped like the kanji each person had written.

The red clad leader stepped forward, unsheathing his sword and placing it on his shoulder. "ShinkenRed, Shiba Takeru."

"The same, blue!" The blue figure spoke next making a downward cut with his sword while putting his hand to his face in a Kabuki pose. "Ikenami Ryunosuke!"

"The same, pink!" The pink figure said next with a graceful swing of her blade. "Shiraishi Mako!"

"The same, green!" The green figure spoke, running his hand along his blade. "Tani Chiaki!"

"The same, yellow!" The yellow figure spoke, gracefully showing a short kata. "Hanaori Kotoha!"

"The same, gold!" The gold figure announced, showing his speed in unsheathing, cutting, and then sheathing his weapon. "Umemori Genta!"

The colorful figures then bowed while the ShinkenRed stood tall gripping his blade tightly. "The Samurai Sentai authorised by the providence…" the group then all stood up with a slash of their blades. "Shinkengers! On call!"

"You don't scare me!" Wanyu crowed, waving his hand in the air. "Nanashi Company! Report!"

"NYAAAA!" A hollow sounding roar echoed before the enemy came. Somehow, they were squeezing themselves out of the gaps which no possible person, even a trained contortionist, could squeeze their way out of. They were dressed in yellow fabric with brown armor which looked scaled like a reptile's skin. Their heads were covered with a red helmet which looked organic with teeth lining where the visor had went. Inside the 'mouth' of the helmet was a black void, hiding the features of the monsters' faces, if they had any. Every one of the monsters was holding a wicked looking blade that looked eager to cut something.

ShinkenRed then ordered with a single word. "Ikuzo."

Ranma was walking back to the dojo, excited to continue his lessons. He was going to need a lot of practice to make up for Genma's neglect. He still couldn't believe that his father would purposefully neglect something as serious as fighting the Gedoushu in favour of his plot to retire early on Ranma's labour. Then again, Genma seemed willing to do just about anything to avoid work, retire early, eat for free, or get free money. Knowing that, it didn't come out as much of a surprise as it should have.

Having been to the art store and gathering the supplies his mother requested, Ranma was on his way back when he stumbled across what he thought was a fight…between people in spandex and monsters. It was probably a movie being shot but considering Nerima's nature it could be something more real. Each of the colourful figures had a kanji on their helmets and were fighting a bunch of screaming monsters with red helmets and yellow outfits while another monster with a wheel around its neck hung near the back.

Each of the colored figures were doing pretty well as Ranma took in the sight. The one in green seemed to be the most inexperienced with the yellow one being a close second. The pink one seemed to be about average, but against the obvious sloppy monsters she was up against, it was enough. The gold one was definitely the most interesting since he was using a backhand slashing style which relied of sheathing and then drawing his sword. Ranma didn't recall seeing a style like that before so he assumed that it was an original used only by the one man. The most skilled of the group had to be the ones in red and blue. While the blue one definitely had style, it seemed to be more of a showy style like actors would use adapted to battle. The red one on the other hand was using his sword like a trained samurai would. No move was wasted and every stroke hit something. Ranma could tell that the red fighter took the samurai arts as seriously as he did the martial arts.

When he heard the word. "Gedoushu," being uttered by one of the colourful characters, he realized that this was not the average Nerima strangeness nor was it some kind of television show being recorded. These were the Gedoushu and the Shinkengers in another one of their battles. "So, I'm supposed to fight these guys, huh?" Ranma put his calligraphy supplies in a safe place before cracking his knuckles. "Alright, let's see how tough they really are!"

Starting at a run, Ranma charged into the mass of foot soldiers, taking a flying leap and kicking one in the back, knocking it into its fellows. The monsters screamed and bellowed, but managed to get back up to their feet quickly enough. Snarling, they charged at the pigtailed martial artist with their weapons raised. It didn't really serve to intimidate the young man, having faced the sheer amount of weapons that Mousse had in his arsenal. Instead, he began dodging the sword swipes like a grasshopper on steroids, causing the blades to only hit air in their quest to strike him down.

"Who is that?!" Cried ShinkenBlue, spotting the teenager enter the fight.

"Dunno!" ShinkenGreen grunted as he swung with his Wood Spear.

"He's a civilian! We have to get him out of here!" Gasped ShinkenPink.

"Moko Takabisha!"...Hold thought.

BOOM!

"Nyaaa!" Several members of the Nanashi Company went flying through the air before hitting the pavement heavily with their chest armor smoking from whatever attack the pigtailed young man had used. ShinkenPink and ShinkenGold blinked as the young man continued to do battle with the Nanashi, a grin on his face.

"Uh…you sure he needs help?" asked ShinkenGold.

"Hah!" ShinkenRed slashed at a Nanashi, knocking it to the ground with smoke coming from its chest. Glancing, he saw the young man kick a Nanashi away, sending it packing into its fellows. Both fighters stood back to back with each other, watching the remaining Nanashi circle around them, trying to get a critical hit, but being deflected or nowhere near brave enough to try.

"So…you guys the Shinkengers?" asked the pigtailed young man.

"Yes," ShinkenRed nodded, deflecting a blow. "Who are you?"

"Ranma Saotome," the boy answered, elbowing a Nanashi in the face while it tried to sneak up on him. "Which one of you is Takeru Shiba?"

"I am," the red samurai answered, slashing a Nanashi down. However, the name had instantly caught his attention. The son of Nodoka Himura, now Saotome, was named Ranma. Could this be the one they had been looking for?

"Oh. Saves me the trouble of finding you then," Ranma grinned, kicking a Nanashi in the head. "Supposedly I'm a Samurai of Metal which is supposed to help you fight these guys. Sorry for being so late."

"The help is appreciated," ShinkenRed replied as both he and Ranma kicked one Nanashi into his fellows, creating a domino effect. "Although I expect an explanation as to why the call wasn't heeded when the Gedoushu began to reappear."

"We'll have to talk to Mom about that," Ranma sighed, scratching the base of his pigtail. "I only found out about this stuff today and she hasn't explained a whole lot about the history."

"What?!" ShinkenRed gasped, for once truly surprised about something.

"Talk later!" Ranma cried, taking on more of the attacking Nanashi, separating himself from ShinkenRed.

Ranma twisted and swerved around the Nanashi, knocking them away with punches and kicks, getting the maximum effect for minimal effort because of the numbers against him. The Nanashi weren't revealing any kind of great skill, but numbers were capable of destroying a powerful fighter if they weren't careful about how and when they used their attacks. Flipping through the waves, Ranma slid between two of the foot soldiers before kicking their feet out from under them. Getting up, he prepared to face down more fighters, but instead they began backing away. Ranma frowned at the action for a moment before the mass of soldiers backed away, leaving a straight path towards the wheeled monster.

"Did my ears deceive me?" The creature asked. "You're the seventh Shinkenger?"

"I am," Ranma nodded. "Supposedly anyway."

"Well, isn't this lucky?" The monster grinned, stepping closer with an easy stride. "It'll save me the trouble of having to hunt you down. Time to die Shinkenger!"

The wheeled monster charged at Ranma with murderous intent, raising its bladed wheels high for an assault. Far from being unused to attacks aimed to kill him, Ranma charged at the monster rather than attempting to run away from it. Both combatants met with the beast slashing at Ranma's neck only to find air where his target had been. Sliding underneath the blow, Ranma twisted on the spot and kicked at the monster's rear, knocking him down with a grunt.

"I was expecting a little more from the infamous Gedoushu." Ranma smirked, going with his tried and true method of ticking the enemy off.

"You haven't seen anything yet!" The demon roared angrily. Rearing its arm back, it actual threw one of his spiked wheels at the teen. It was fast, no doubt about that and had Ranma been a regular person, he would have been short one head. However, years of intense training and dealing with people who were faster than what was considered normal, he was able to dodge the blow, even if several of his hairs became shorter in the process. Righting himself, Ranma looked to see the member of the Gedoushu on his feet and charging with his remaining weapon. Tensing, he began dodging around blow after blow from the monster. Despite how bulky it looked, the wheeled monster was by no means slow. Ranma was putting more effort into simply dodging than he usually did in his usual bouts against rivals and fiancées.

"Hey kid! Look out!" One of the Shinkengers, the green one Ranma though, called out in warning. Heeding the call, Ranma looked away for a moment to see that the wheel which the monster had thrown before was returning like a boomerang. His eyes widening, Ranma dove so to avoid the attack. He managed to avoid it, but the tearing sounds from his shirt and the sudden pain which lanced across his back told him that it wasn't a clean miss.

"Ha!" The demon crowed, catching his weapon as if it were catching a feather. "Weren't expecting that, were you Shinkenger?"

Ranma just grimaced as he tried to get back to his feet. The wound on his back was already beginning to stiffen and it wasn't going to make fighting any easier. Either Ranma had been letting himself get soft with all of the average fights everyday or this Gedoushu was way better than any of the other fighters he had been dealing with as of late. Checking his surroundings, Ranma noticed that the other Shinkengers were being mobbed by the cannon fodder, making it less than likely that he was going to be receiving any help soon.

"Just perfect." He muttered crossly.

"And here I thought this job was going to be hard," The Gedoushu snickered as he advanced. "Heh, heh, heh, heh, he-URK!" The crowing of the monster was suddenly cut short when the centre of its chest began to turn dull and grey with cracks spreading across it as if it were fossilizing. The beast tried to advance, but the grey area just grew as the cracking noise became louder. Glancing at the other monsters the Shinkengers were fighting, Ranma saw that it was happening to them as well, hindering their fighting abilities. Looking back at the wheel monster, he watched its lone eye narrow. "You got lucky this time –ugh- Shinkenger! Now we know your face though! You'll never receive a moment of peace after today!"

His threat made, the wheel monster ran towards a bench. Drawing closer, the creases between the lines of wood began to glow a bright red before the monster just seemed to compress himself through them and vanish. The weaker monsters likewise dashed for small gaps between buildings, items, or wherever they could find one and likewise squeeze through and disappear. Ranma didn't bat an eye at their means of transportation, having seen things which were just as strange and long since gotten used to them. Instead, he tried to check the wound on his back, quickly finding his shirt torn and a warm liquid covering his fingers.

"Hey, you okay?" A voice called, making Ranma turn. Approaching him were the Shinkengers, likely concerned about him. As they approached their outfits began to glow before flashing their respective colours and vanishing. In their place were two women and four guys. The one who had called out to him was ShinkenGreen who turned out to be a teenager with brown hair that was slightly spiked. Next to him was ShinkenBlue who was an older guy who had a vest and tie along with a blue button up shirt. ShinkenGold looked to be a guy dressed as a sushi vendor, complete with the headband. ShinkenPink was a young woman with long black hair who wore a pink sweater with a black skirt. ShinkenYellow was a girl who seemed a little closer to his age with black hair done up in two ponytails and wore a yellow hoodie with white shorts and sandals. Lastly ShinkenRed was a slightly tan fellow with a red t-shirt and black pants on who hard short dark hair and a look of utmost seriousness on his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ranma answered, wincing as he touched the wound on his back. "It's nothing that I'm not used to."

"It still looks bad," The woman in pink worried as she approached. "Please let me take a look." Not waiting for a reply, she went to Ranma's back and began inspecting the wound. The gasp she gave when she saw it did not make Ranma, nor her comrades, feel any better.

"So, you're Ranma Saotome, the son of Nodoka Himura-Saotome?" asked the man in red, Takeru Shiba, approaching Ranma as the woman fussed over the wound on his back.

"That's me," Ranma nodded. "I saw you guys fighting those things and decided to get involved. You'll probably be wanting to talk to my mom though, won't you?"

"Yes," Takeru nodded. "Is she nearby?"

"Not too far," Ranma answered, breaking free from the concerned woman's grasp. "Where I live is pretty close so we can walk there. Follow me."

Walking past the group with the woman in pink still trying to treat his wound, Ranma began leading the Shinkengers towards his home.

* * *

"Damn! Damn! Damn!"

Wanyu cursed loudly as he emerged through the stone gaps on the edge of the Sanzu River, splashing onto its shores before coating himself with its waters. Almost immediately the grey coloring began to fade and the cracks began to close. Denizens of the Sanzu River were incapable of staying in the human world for very long before their bodies began to dry out and they had to return to the Sanzu River to rehydrate on the special water there. It was a rather bothersome hindrance for the Gedoushu who wished to invade the human world, thus the reason they tried to cause a lot of misery in the human world so to flood the river.

"Hey, you find anything?"

Wanyu blinked and looked down the shoreline to see Shukaku approaching. He looked just as fine as ever while Wanyu himself was still trying to get all of his water back from his own excursion into the human world.

"Yeah, I found the Samurai of Metal," the wheeled Ayakashi grunted, splashing himself with more water. "It's some kid with black hair in a pigtail. Wears Chinese clothes. He's good through. He managed to avoid nearly all of my attacks and he wasn't even in his suit. I managed to hurt him, but I ran out of water before I could finish him off. Now the other Shinkengers have him."

"Wow. That sucks," The tanuki huffed. "Well, I didn't find that Nodoka Himura lady either. I did find a lady named Nodoka Saotome though! Do you think Shitari-sama will be satisfied with that?"

"You idiot!" Wanyu growled, smacking his partner on the head. "Of course Shitari-sama won't be pleased with that! We're looking for Nodoka Himura! Not Nodoka Sao…tome…" The Ayakashi trailed off as he remembered something. He had been watching the battle where the boy had gotten involved. If he remembered right, the brat called himself Ranma Saotome. Maybe…just maybe rather than her husband marrying into her family, she married into his. Looking to his partner, Wanyu continued, "Shukaku! Where'd you find this Saotome woman?"

"At some dojo in the human world," the tanuki answered. "Why?"

"When I get my water back, you're going to head over there and finish off that woman while I distract the Shinkengers!" Wanyu answered, heading back for the river. "Maybe if we're lucky we can finish off at least one of those Shiba vassals before the day is through."

"All right!" Shukaku grinned

* * *

**Tendo Dojo**

The mood was more than a little tense at the Tendo Dojo, but rather because Akane was upset at Ranma for some reason, the fathers were aiming for another wedding, or another fiancé appeared, it was for a brand new reason. Having been formally introduced to the head of the Shiba family and his retainers, Ranma brought them all to the Tendo dojo for someplace to rest and getting some explanations. Kasumi was very pleased to meet all of them and hadn't spared anything in the tea and snacks she made for everyone. Mako, the girl in pink Ranma had met, was given the first-aid kit so she could see to the wound on Ranma's back which the Ayakashi had given him. However, the tense atmosphere had stemmed from Nodoka and how pale she had become after Takeru and his retainers had entered the house.

Everyone was sitting at the dining room table. The only ones who seemed to be totally dense about the tense atmosphere were Kotoha and Genta as they enjoyed the snacks and tea that Kasumi had put out. Ranma, very used to tense atmospheres just took it in stride as he waited for the red-clad samurai to make his statement.

"W-well Tono-sama," Nodoka smiled weakly. "I…I hope your trip here was not too harsh."

"It was well enough save for the Ayakashi which attacked us," Takeru answered stoically. "Your son stumbled upon us and took up the fight. He acquitted himself well. What concerns me is that he hadn't heeded the call when the Gedoushu began to appear nor was the call apparently heeded in my father's time. I sincerely hope that you have an explanation for this."

"I…I do," Nodoka nodded nervously. "After my father's unfortunate passing, I was still too young to take the role of a Shinkenger so when the previous generation of Shinkengers were called, there was no one to take up the mantle of the Samurai of Metal. My family was shamed by being unable to support the cause. When my son was born and my husband desired to take him on a training journey, I insisted that he be taught the Himura family arts so that he would be ready should the Gedoushu rise during his lifetime," Nodoka's nervousness then gave way to anger. "Unfortunately, my husband has done everything in his power to prevent Ranma from knowing about the Gedoushu and the responsibilities our families have by facing them."

"What?!" Ryunosuke gasped. "You mean your husband actually sabotaged your son's training?!"

"Sabotage nothing," Ranma huffed. "I never got training for fighting Gedoushu. I didn't know anything about swords, Mojikara, or any of that stuff until today."

"EH?!" Chiaki, Kotoha, Genta, and Ryunosuke gaped widely.

"Does your husband realise that in doing so he is technically a traitor to Japan by indirectly assisting the Gedoushu?" asked Takeru with a deep frown. "All of us have been charged by the emperor to combat the Ayakishi wherever we find them and we will need all of the help we can get."

"I realize that, but I doubt Genma does," Nodoka sighed. "He is notoriously lazy and greedy, often finding everyone else's needs and desires secondary to his own. Often times I allowed his behaviour because it helped provide for my family in the past, but after seeing what he has done with Ranma's education and some of the other messes he has made of the Saotome honour, I can't help but see that he has gone too far."

Ranma looked to his mother and felt the sudden urge to roll his eyes. His mother had been over the moon about the number of girls who were after him and he didn't doubt they told him about their engagements to him. It made a mess of the Saotome honour already, but Nodoka's solution was just to take all the girls as mistresses and be done with it. Of course, Ranma really wasn't into that sort of thing despite how manly his mother assured him it was. Even if he was, the Fiancée Brigade would never go for it since they were all determined to become the wife and take down any girl who so much as sniffed around him.

"But why would he do such a thing?" asked Kotoha with concern. "The Gedoushu are dangerous and a threat to everyone."

"Most likely because becoming a Shinkenger means doing away with all personal connections," Nodoka sighed. Seeing the curious looks of her lord and his vassals, she continued, "You see, Genma has arranged a marriage with his best friend and owner of this dojo's daughter. He wishes very much to see this marriage happen, believing that Ranma and the youngest daughter of the household are destined to be and would make a wonderful couple."

"Yeah right." Ranma muttered under his breath.

"I see," Mako nodded, the truth dawning on her. "If Ranma were to become a Shinknger, then the engagement would have to be cancelled since having any kind of connection to the outside world would make a target for the Gedoushu."

"Huh?" Ranma blinked, his attention instantly back in the conversation. Did he hear that right? If he joined up with the Shinkengers then the engagement with Akane would be cancelled because the Gedoushu would try to use it as a weapon against him? Would that apply to all of the other engagements too?

"But, couldn't the engagement just be remade after the Gedoushu are defeated?" asked Chiaki.

"Well…technically yes…but Ranma and Akane-chan…" Nodoka trailed off, unsure of how to word the next phrase.

"The uncute tomboy and I fight like c-c-cats and dogs," Ranma answered bluntly.

"Ranma!" The Saotome matriarch chided her son.

"Wow. That bad?" asked Genta.

"Very bad," Ranma nodded. "She has got to have the absolute worst temper in the world. I call her a name and she hits me with a mallet. She can't cook at all and when I try it I get sick, but does she believe it's that bad? No, she assumes I'm making fun of her about it even though I have to be taken to the freaking hospital half the time. She can't sew and her martial arts aren't really that good either. She always assumes the worst about me no matter how many times I help her out so the two of us willingly being engaged probably wouldn't happen."

"And the fight with the Gedoushu could very well last long enough until you are legally an adult," Takeru nodded. "That would nix your father's plan for you and this Akane girl."

"Pretty much," nodded Ranma. "He doesn't really care if our marriage is a happy one or not so long as he gets what he wants to feed his fat belly. Mr. Tendo is just as bad. He's really excited about joining the schools. I mean so much so he seems to just turn a blind eye to everything else."

Although she was only observing, Nabiki had to agree with her potential brother-in-law about her father's attitude about the engagement. Before that fateful letter came, her father tended to just go through the motions everyday, just content to apparently live for the moment. After the whole engagement mess came up, he acted like a little kid, giddy as could be. He completely ignored the fact that Ranma and Akane fought nearly all the time, seeing it as just a phase. When more fiancées started showing up, he preferred to blame Ranma for it rather than Genma who had been the one to break the pact in the first place. Anything that wasn't good for the engagement was ignored by the man or he used his demon head to make the perpetrator take back what was done to make the bad news unable to be ignored. In most cases that was Ranma when he did or said something to make Akane mad and she would proclaim she would never marry him. Soun Tendo never could stand up to his daughters.

Kasumi just patiently observed in case one of their guests needed more snacks. It was quite the serious situation and if the wound on Ranma's back was any indication, as serious as it got. Nodoka had touched on the Gedoushu and Ayakashi with Kasumi while they waited for Ranma to return, saying they were demons from the Sanzu River. If Ranma was to fight them, then perhaps it would be a good thing that the engagements and other connections were forgotten until the Gedoushu were defeated. Her father certainly wouldn't like the news, but Kasumi thought that it might give Ranma and Akane the space they needed from each other so that they could sort out their feelings for one another.

Even the eternal optimism Kasumi was known for didn't hold much hope for a positive relationship happening at this point after so much fighting, anger, and hurt feelings. The pressure from all sides to either get married or break up had done nothing but bad for her little sister and brother, often fighting over little or imagined slights. Despite his bravado, Ranma was actually insecure with himself a lot thanks to his father's constant slandering of his skill, worth, work ethic, and even his gender while Akane was likely never to trust a man completely thanks to the actions of Kuno and the Hentai Horde. The only males she seemed to trust were older ones like Dr. Tofu or the kind who seemed to just nod their heads and say yes to anything she said like Ryoga.

"If the Gedoushu succeed, then all that won't matter in the end," said Takeru, continuing the conversation. "Ranma, I ask you if you wish to become a Shinkenger and fight as one of my retainers," This was a question he'd asked his fellow Shinkengers when they first joined together. He didn't want them to become Shinkengers because they had to or because they were obligated to by honor. Rather, he wanted them to be his fellow Shinkengers by their own free will. It seemed that they wanted to help him anyway and so the team was born. "This is your decision. I won't force you to…"

"I'll do it," Ranma agreed instantly.

Takeru blinked. That was fast.

Ranma explained. "It seems these Gedoushu freaks really want to mess up this world. If there was one good thing that Pop taught me, it's that a martial artist is to protect the weak. The Gedoushu are the kind of things I've been training all my life to go up against." Ranma's face seemed almost solemn in a way, like he had found something he had been searching a long time for. "I'm…not always the easiest guy to get along with and there's a buttload of issues I'm dealing with right now…but if you'll have me, then I'll help against the Gedoushu any way I can."

"Then all I can say at this point is, welcome." Takeru nodded.

"Yatta!" Genta cheered wildly, raising his arms into the air. "Now we have seven Shinkengers!"

"The Gedoushu won't know what hit them!" Chiaki grinned.

"Welcome Ranma-kun!" Kotoha smiled brightly.

"Don't worry about a thing Ranma!" Ryunosuke reassured the younger boy. "With us around we'll get you caught up with everything a Shinkenger needs to know!"

"Appreciate it." Ranma smiled.

"I'll make a big meal tonight to celebrate!" Mako smiled in a very matronly way. The statement seemed to make the other Shinkengers cringe save for Kotoha who seemed to look happier at the thought.

"Sounds good," Ranma nodded, his smile growing large enough to light the room. It felt good to be needed and not for selfish reasons for a change. Takeru and the others needed his help to protect the whole country from the Gedoushu and they weren't even trying to force him to help either. Everyone else he knew constantly demanded his attention and often tried to force him to follow them for their own reasons be it for marriage or trying to get rid of him so the girl they lusted over would pay more attention to them.

Sure, Ranma would be serving Takeru and taking orders from the Shiba Clan head, but he wouldn't be a servant. Rather, Takeru was leader and the most experienced when dealing with Gedoushu. Ranma would need to follow his lead since he was the least experienced when it came to Shinkenger matters while Takeru was probably the most knowledgeable out of all of them.

"Pack up," said Takeru. "We leave today." As a Shinkenger, Ranma would have to live at the Shiba home with the others. The house was surrounded with a barrier that the Gedoushu could not pass so the Shinkengers would live there to allow them some measure of peace and a safe place to train when the Gedoushu were not being active.

"Mom." said Ranma, giving Nodoka a hug.

"Make our Clan proud." She told him, returning the hug. This was important, far more important than the Saotome-Tendo pact and the Seppuku contract. This was something that determined the fate of the world. Ranma needed to do this and no matter how much the fathers and fiancées were going to complain, their wants for Ranma all came secondary.

Nodding, Ranma darted to the stairs and headed for his room. He wanted to get going before the fathers, Akane, or even worse one of the fiancées showed up and found out what was going on. The last time he left, he and Akane just ended up trading insults and then the fiancées followed him back to his mother's house and caused a whole bunch of trouble. This time he knew it was probably going to be worse since in all likelihood, Ranma wasn't going to be coming back for a while since he had to fight the Gedoushu. Since Nabiki was witness to the whole exchange between himself and the Shinkengers, she was no doubt going to sell the information to everyone. Ranma just wanted to be gone before the shit hit the fan and all hell broke lose.

Sliding into his room, he grabbed his pack and stuffed what few of his belongings that was in the room into it. Going into the closet, he removed one of the floorboards and pulled out a bundle of Yen notes which he kept collected in case of emergencies or if he needed to pay off Nabiki. Taking a quick count, Ranma frowned when he discovered that there was less than he remembered in it. Apparently his father had discovered his stash and took up the habit of 'borrowing' money from his son without asking. Cutting off his anger, Ranma just finished packing and headed back downstairs. "I'm ready!"

"Ranma, don't forget your Shodo Phone and Uma-chan," Nodoka reminded her son, holding up the ornate box with the lid open.

"Right, right." The pigtailed martial artist nodded, quickly grabbing the phone in question. Bringing his fingers to his lips, he made a sharp whistle which echoed through the house.

The other Shinkengers blinked at the odd notion before a tiny neigh met their ears. Looking to the ground, they saw an origami horse trotting into the room and straight towards Ranma.

"Kawaii!" Kotoha giggled, admiring the tiny horse.

"Your personal Origami I take it?" asked Takeru.

"Yup. Uma-chan," Ranma nodded, picking up the small horse and keeping it securely in his hand. "Okay, now I'm ready."

"Then let's get going," Takeru nodded.

"Yeah! You have a lot of catching up to do!" Ryunosuke agreed.

All making respectful goodbyes, the Shinkenegrs, now seven members strong, headed to the exit of the dojo.

* * *

Nodoka waved a solemn goodbye, seeing her baby leaving once again. She tried not to cry, she really did, however when faced with her child going away for a second time she was finding the prospect difficult to handle. However, she was descendent of a noble line so she had to remain strong. Ranma was now going to make sure the stain on her family's honour was removed and that the Gedoushu would not try to harm more people in their quest to conquer the human world.

Rubbing her eyes as Ranma and his new friends vanished outside the compound gate, Nodoka looked to the two Tendo daughters. Kasumi seemed just as sad as she was, often finding Ranma as much of a treasure as she did at times. Were it not for her view on younger men, Nodoka would have honestly considered asking Kasumi if she wanted the engagement, but as it were the eldest Tendo merely saw him as a younger brother which brought much life to her house. Nabiki on the other hand seemed indifferent to what had happened and was just munching on some of the snacks that Kasumi had made which were leftover.

"Nabiki, I assume you're going to try and sell this information to the fiancées and rivals?" Nodoka asked, steeling herself.

"Was considering it." Nabiki nodded. An event like this was prime moneymaker material after all and with Ranma leaving, the chaos was going to go with him, leaving less ample opportunities for profit. She would only have so long to cash in so she might as well profit while she could.

"I would strongly suggest not doing it," Nodoka replied sternly. "Tono-sama and his vassals have enough to do with fighting the Gedoushu and making sure they don't invade our world. They don't need Ranma's fiancées and rivals breaking onto their property in attempts to find him on top of all that."

"Uh-huh," Nabiki nodded, obviously not seeing how grave the situation was. Granted, she didn't know just how terrible the Gedoushu were, but the way she seemed to view the situation only in terms of monetary gain was quite vexing to the Saotome matriarch.

"If it does happen, then I don't doubt that the Emperor will hear of it," Nodoka frowned. "If he does hear of it, then he will have all of the fiancées and rivals detained and questioned for their roles in disrupting the activities of the Shinkengers. If questioned, I also have no doubts that they will tell the Emperor just who gave them the information on Ranma in the first place. Once they know, the Emperor will be sending agents here and I will be quite happy to explain to them just what has been going on for the past year as best to my knowledge."

Nabiki's eyes suddenly widened in realization. She figured that whoever Takeru was, he was pretty important. However, she had thought that he was just rich like Kuno was. Now, normally she would have taken Nodoka's indirect threat as a bluff, but she knew the woman never bluffed. Not after all the times she had witnessed seeing her go after Ranma with a sword or draw it on Genma. If she said that the Shiba Clan, Takeru was head of had connections to the Emperor, then she could believe it. She also knew that if agents of the Emperor did catch the Wrecking Crew and interrogate them, they'd roll on her in a second if only to avoid taking blame themselves. From testimony from the Wrecking Crew and Nodoka herself explaining what she knew, the agents would be able to put together what Ranma had to go through for the past year at the hands of Akane, the fiancées, and the rivals. No matter how one spun things, the only one who would be able to get away without getting into some very deep trouble would be Kasumi.

"I see you understand," Nodoka nodded, seeing Nabiki's shocked face. "If Tono-sama and his vassals must deal with Ranma's suitors and rivals then I will be able to tell who gave them the information. Please do your best to remember it," Drawing upon her reserve, she straightened up. "Now, I believe we'll be in need of some extra ingredients for dinner tonight. I'll go and get them." Her warning made, she retrieved her outdoor shoes and headed for the door from the property.

Nabiki just continued to stare as the consequences of her actions for the past year dangled in front of her face. Not one person aside from Kasumi who had been close to Ranma was innocent of anything less than abuse, harassment, sexual harassment, assault, and/or destruction of property. Nabiki likewise knew that she herself would probably be a candidate for racketeering and blackmail charges if agents of the Emperor heard about her betting pools and the various people who paid her money to keep quiet about secrets she really didn't have much business knowing in the first place, Ranma being chief among them for some time. If Ranma's family on his mother's side was really such a big deal, then Nabiki knew that the hammer was going to come down hard if his problems in Nerima decided that what they wanted was more important than the word of the Emperor himself.

"I think…I should make a few calls..." She murmured to herself after a few moments of contemplation.

"That's nice." Kasumi commented, although there was possibly less warmth in that smile than there usually was.

* * *

Furinkan High School, despite some of the lunacy perpetrated by its principal or various students, did manage to operate like a normal school when given the chance. As such, there were several after-school clubs which went on when the official day was done. Likewise, some people just liked to hang out there since their friends had clubs there or they had nothing else better to do for the time being and simply decided to be there. In today's case, the clubs and various people hanging out included Yuka, Sayuri, and Akane as they decided to just see what was going on with the latest drama production or other upcoming school events. Of course, Yuka and Sayuri were pleased with the distraction since they had to listen to Akane complain about what a pervert Ranma was being that day.

The two girls liked Akane and they of course supported her through a lot, like when the mob of boys known as the Hentai Horde tried to beat her up for the right to date her. They even supported Akane through all the tough times which seemed to come when she got engaged to Ranma. However, both girls knew about how quick Akane was to proclaim boys as perverts and as such, tried to give Ranma the benefit of the doubt in some of the incidents he seemed to get caught up in. Sure, the debacle with Ukyo's engagement they might have been hasty with their judgement, but they were defending a fellow girl who was denied every girl's romantic dream. In hindsight, yeah, it was more Genma's fault since he set the whole thing up and after Nabiki somehow got a hold of childhood photos of Ranma and Ukyo, the girls could see how he could have mistaken her as a boy. They had also long since determined that Shampoo would and did do just about anything to make Ranma get closer to her to try and consummate her marriage, having witnessed her do things such as tricking Ranma into eating that herb which would make him do a certain command when he heard a noise. Despite Akane's rants about him chasing after Shampoo, most girls guessed it was probably because she had something which Ranma really wanted or did something that would make him do it. Likewise, they knew that Kodachi was just as nutty as her brother so they really doubted that Ranma would be chasing after her no matter how provocatively she dressed.

A lot of students, including Yuka and Sayuri, had been on the school grounds when the latest spat between the fiancées broke out. They had all seen Ranma sleeping in the tree and mumbling about something. Granted, there was the chance he was dreaming about something ecchi, but there was also the chance that he was just having a bad dream or was dreaming about fighting which considering his personality, was much more likely. Of course, Akane just jumped straight to the dirtiest answer and got angry while the other fiancées just assumed he was dreaming about them. Yuka and Sayuri just had to wonder what made them so sure about their answers when Ranma had shown little to no interest in any of them in the past without the use of some kind of magic item or mind-altering substance.

"...and that pervert just sitting out there dreaming dirty things in the middle of the schoolyard!" Akane ranted as they walked towards the gates. "Can he get any more perverted?!"

"Right, right." Yuka sighed.

"Uh-huh." Sayuri nodded, not really listening. Really, it was like Akane was a broken record since the failed wedding. Ranma's a pervert. Chasing hussies. I hate Kuno. Daddy won't listen. Total jerk. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Both girls had thought that it was going to get better since it seemed Ranma had picked Akane, but with the youngest Tendo lashing out at him for just about any reason these days, it seemed better for his health if he didn't pick her for any reason.

As the girls approached the school gates, they didn't notice that something odd was happening with a nearby pile of bricks which were going to be used to repair the walls damaged from the latest spat. Gaps in between the stacks began to glow a deep red as noises seemed to echo from within. No one really took notice of it though, it being taking place in a spot no one would think to look and the event itself being so small it was easy to overlook.

When the Nanashi along with the wheeled Wanyu squeezed themselves out of those gaps and began to swarm the schoolyard, even the usually accepting people of Nerima began to freak out.

"Kyaaaa!" Yuka screamed, seeing the yellow-clad monsters swarming towards them, swords raised.

"What are those things?!" Sayuri cried, backing away.

"I can take them!" Akane frowned, taking a stance.

"What?!" Her two friends cried in shock.

The Nanashi didn't seem particularly caring of the overconfident Tendo as they swarmed all over the area, causing screams of terror to erupt.

* * *

Takeru's Shodo Phone began to ring as he and his six retainers headed towards the train station which would take them back to their usual stomping grounds. Immediately pulling it from his pocket, he answered it with the press of a button with a stoic "Hello?"

"Tono-sama!" The voice of Hikoma spoke from the other end. "A Gedoushu has appeared again! It's in the same area as you are currently in! It had appeared once before but it had vanished by the time we managed to find its location! I apolo-!"

"We already know Jii," Takeru answered. "We drove it off before. Where is it?"

"According to the map we managed to find, it's at a place called Furinkan High School," Hikoma replied, sounding like he had to read something as he said so. It was normal since the area which the Gedoushu and Shinkengers did battle was separated by numbered quadrants and Hikoma knew those by heart. This battle taking place outside of their usual area made his reaction time a little slower. "Do you know where that is?"

"We have someone who knows with us," Takeru answered, glancing over at Ranma. Quickly ending the call, he spoke to the pigtailed martial artist. "Do you know the way to Furinkan High School?"

"Furinkan?" Ranma blinked, suddenly finding the eyes of the other Shinkengers on him. "Well…sure I do. I went to school there. Why do you want to go there though?"

"The Gedoushu are attacking there," Takeru answered bluntly. "We need to get there now."

"What?!" Ranma cried, his eyes as well as those of his new friends widening in surprise. "Then what are we waiting for?! Follow me!" Quickly turning in a different direction, Ranma began to run towards Furinkan. Mindful that the other Shinkengers could not roofhop like him, he kept it to the streets. However, none of them were going to have time to catch their breath if he had anything to say about it. People were in danger and it was his duty to protect them!

* * *

"WAUGH!"

Akane screamed as she slammed against the wall of Furinkan, being dealt a powerful punch from Wanyu. The wind had been knocked from her lungs and one of her eyes was slowly swelling shut. Huddling against one of the trees which decorated the school's property, Yuka and Sayuri were watching with fear and despair at the sight of their friend being beaten.

When the Ayakashi and the Nanashi appeared, the students began to freak and began piling into the school, barricading the doors in attempts to keep the monsters out. This was Nerima and they were used to destruction sprees by martial artists and various entities so they were well-practiced in this procedure. However, Akane wasn't one who practised this procedure and despite urgings from her friends, she charged forward to meet the advancing Nanashi with her fists clenched, ready to unleash her usual rage-powered strength. On a normal day she wouldn't have tried to do this, but she had worked herself up in a frenzy over Ranma's daily 'perversion' and given how pathetic some supernatural entities which showed up in Nerima were, she charged in head first like a bull expecting the Nanashi to be the same.

The Nanashi didn't even break stride.

To her credit, she managed to deal with a few of them, knocking them silly with her rage-fuelled strength. On the downside though, the Nanashi she was able to knock down and hit managed to get themselves back up and into the fight. It was a short time before Akane was overrun by the foot soldiers and had to make a break from the yellow-clad demons to try and figure out a plan of attack. Unfortunately, it led her straight to Wanyu, who had been watching with amusement. Correctly assuming that he was the leader of the band of monsters, she figured that by defeating him, the others would run away. So, against the wishes of her two friends, she charged at Wanyu, believing her anger and martial arts would be able to take him down and for once credit her with saving the day.

She didn't see Wanyu's punch coming.

* * *

A/N: And that's as far as I go. Is it good? Want more? Send a review but don't flame me okay? If you see a mistake or something then just tell me and don't go postal on me for it. I'm not perfect.


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